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DISCOURSE 



PASTORAL CARE. 



BY THE RIGHT REV. FATHER IN GOD, 

GILBERT,, LATE LORD BISHOP OF SARUM. 



FIFTEENTH EDITION. 

PRINTED VERBATIM FROM THE AUTHOR'S LAST CORRECTED EDITION. 
TO WHICH is PREFIXED, 

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR* 



Hontron : 

WILLIAM TEGG AND Co., CHEAPSIDE. 

M.DCCC.XL1X. 






LC Control Number 




tmp96 031636 



TO THE QUEEN'S 
MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY* 



MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, 

The title of Defender of the Faith is so inherent 
in the royal dignity, and so essential a part of its 
security, as well as of its glory, that there was no 
need of papal bulls to add it to the crown your 
Majesty now wears : you hold it by a much better 
tenure, as well as by a more ancient possession. 
Nor can one reflect on the pope's giving it to king 
Henry VIII., without remembering what is said 
of Caiaphas, that " being high priest that year, he 
prophesied. ,, For since that time the true faith 
hath been so eminently defended by our princes, 
and that of both sexes, we having had our Pul- 
cherias as well as our Constan tines and our Theo- 
doses, that this church has been all along the chief 
strength and honour of the Reformation, as well 
as the main object of the envy and spite of those 
of the Roman communion. 

But though your Majesty's royal ancestors have 
done so much for us, there remains yet a great 
deal to be done for the completing of our reforma- 
tion, especially as to the lives and manners of men. 

* Mary, the pious and excellent queen of King Wil- 
liam III. 



DEDICATION. 

This will most effectually be done, by obliging the 
clergy to be more exemplary in their lives, and 
more diligent and faithful in the discharge of their 
pastoral duty. And this work seems to be re- 
served for your Majesties, and designed to be the 
felicity and glory of your reign. To serve God 
by promoting this great and glorious design, which 
is so truly worthy of your Majesty's best care and 
endeavours, I have purposely written this treatise, 
which I do with all humility dedicate and present 
to your Sacred Majesty. 

May that God who is the King of kings, and 
hath blessed us with two such excellent princes, 
preserve you both long to us, and make you as 
happy in us as we are in you ! May you reign 
over us till you have accomplished all those great 
designs for which God hath raised you up, and 
with which he hath filled your hearts : and may 
this church be made, by your means, the "per- 
fection of beauty," and "the joy of the whole 
earth I" 

These are the daily and most fervent prayers of, 

May it please your Majesty, 
Your Majesty's most loyal, 

Most humble, and most obedient 
Subject and Chaplain, 

GIL. SARUM. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
Lifb of the Author i 

The Preface to the First Edition xviii 

The Preface to the Third Edition xxxiv 

CHAPTER I. 

Of the Dignity of Sacred Employments, and the 
Names and Designations given to them in Scripture 5 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Of the Rules set down in Scripture for those that 
minister in Holy Things, and of the Corruptions 
that are set forth in them 63 

CHAPTER III. 

Passages out of the New Testament relating to the 
same Matter 75 

CHAPTER IT. 

Of the sense of the Primitive Church in this Matter. 97 

CHAPTER V. 

An Account of some Canons in divers Ages of the 
Church, relating to the Duties and Labours of the 
Clergy 122 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Page 
Of the declared Sense and Rules of the Church of 
England in this Matter 138 

CHAPTER VII. 

Of the due Preparation of such as may, and ought to 
be put in Orders 167 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Of the Functions and Labours of Clergymen 197 

CHAPTER IX. 

Concerning Preaching 229 

The Conclusion 253 

CHAPTER X. 
Of Presentations to Benefices and Simony 262 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury, was born 
at Edinburgh, Sept. 18, 1643. His father was the 
younger brother of an ancient family in the county 
of Aberdeen, and was bred to the civil law, which 
he studied for seven years in France : at the Res- 
toration he was made one of the lords of the session 
by the title of lord Cramond. His wife, our au- 
thor's mother, was very eminent for her piety and 
virtue, and a warm zealot for the presbyterian dis- 
cipline, in which way she had been very strictly 
educated. 

Our author received the first rudiments of his 
education from his father; under whose care he 
made so quick a progress, that, at ten years of age, 
he perfectly understood the Latin tongue ; at which 
time he was sent to the college of Aberdeen, where 
he acquired the Greek, and went through the usual 
course of Aristotelian logic and philosophy with un- 
common applause. He was scarcely fourteen when 
he commenced master of arts, and then applied 

B 



11 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



himself to the study of the civil law ; but, after 
a years diligent application to that science, he 
changed his resolution, and turned his thoughts 
wholly to the study of divinity. At eighteen years 
of age, he was put upon his trial as a probationer 
or expectant preacher; and, at the same time, was 
offered the presentation to a very good benefice, 
by his cousin-german, sir Alexander Burnet ; but 
thinking himself too young for the cure of souls, he 
modestly declined that offer. His education, thus 
happily begun, was finished by the conversation 
and advice of the most eminent Scotch divines. In 
1663, about two years after his father's death, he 
came into England, where he first visited the two 
universities. At Cambridge he had an opportunity 
of conversing with Dr. Cud worth, Dr. Pearson, Dr. 
Burnet, author of the " Sacred Theory," and Dr. 
Henry More, one of whose sayings, in relation to 
rites and ceremonies, then made a great impression 
on him: " None of these," said he, "are bad 
enough to make men bad, and I am sure none of 
them are good enough to make men good." At 
Oxford our author was much caressed, on account 
of his knowledge of the councils and fathers, by 
Dr. Fell, and Dr. Pocock, that great master of 
Oriental learning. He was much improved there, 
in his mathematics and natural philosophy, by the 
instructions of Dr. Wallis, who likewise gave him 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. Ill 

a letter of recommendation to the learned and pious 
Mr. Boyle, at London. Upon his arrival there, he 
was introduced to all the most noted divines, as 
Tillotson, Stillingfle.et, Patrick, Lloyd, Whichcote, 
and Wilkins ; and, among others of the laity, to 
sir Robert Murray. 

In 1665 he was ordained a priest by the bishop 
of Edinburgh, and presented by sir Robert Fletcher 
to the living of Saltoun, which had been kept va- 
cant during his absence. He soon gained the af- 
fections of his whole parish, not excepting the 
presbyterians, though he was the only clergyman 
in Scotland that made use of the prayers in the 
liturgy of the church of England. During the five 
years he remained at Saltoun, he preached twice 
every Sunday, and once on one of the week-days : 
he catechised three times a week, so as to examine 
every parishioner, old or young, three times in the 
compass of a year : he went round the parish from 
house to house, instructing, reproving, or comfort- 
ing them, as occasion required : the sick he visited 
twice a day : he administered the sacrament four 
times a year, and personally instructed all such as 
gave notice of their intention to receive it. All that 
remained above his own necessary subsistence, (in 
which he was very frugal,) he gave away in charity. 
A particular instance of his generosity is thus re- 
lated : one of his parishioners had been in execu- 
b 2 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



tion for debt, and applied to our author for some 
small relief, who inquired of him how much would 
again set him up in his trade : the man named the 
sum, and he as readily called to his servant to pay- 
it him : " Sir," said he, " it is all we have in the 
house." " Well," said Mr. Burnet, " pay it this 
poor man : you do not know the pleasure there is 
in making a man glad." 

In 1669 he was made professor of divinity at 
Glasgow; in which station he executed the follow- 
ing plan of study. On Mondays he made each of 
the students, in their turn, explain a head of divi- 
nity in Latin, and propound such theses from it as 
he was to defend against the rest of the scholars ; 
and this exercise concluded with our professors de- 
cision of the point in a Latin oration. On Tuesdays 
he gave them a prelection in the same language, 
in which he proposed, in the course of eight years, 
to have gone through a complete system of divinity. 
On Wednesdays he read them a lecture, for above 
an hour, by way of a critical commentary on St. 
Matthew's Gospel; which he finished before he 
quitted the chair. On Thursdays the exercise was 
alternate ; one Thursday he expounded a Hebrew 
Psalm, comparing it with the Septuagint, the Vul- 
gar, and the English version ; and the next Thurs- 
day he explained some portion of the ritual and 
constitution of the primitive church, making the 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. V 

apostolical canons his text, and reducing every ar- 
ticle of practice under the head of one or other of 
those canons. On Fridays he made each of his 
scholar, in course, preach a short sermon upon 
some text he assigned ; and, when it was ended, he 
observed upon any thing that was defective or 
amiss in the handling of the subject. This was 
the labour of the mornings : in the evenings, after 
prayer, he every day read some parcel of scripture, 
on which he made a short discourse ; and, when 
that was over he examined into the progress of 
their several studies. All this he performed during 
the whole time the schools were open ; and, in or- 
der to acquit himself with credit, he was obliged to 
study hard from four till ten in the morning ; the 
rest of the day being of necessity allotted, either 
to the care of his pupils, or to hearing the com- 
plaints of the clergy, w T ho, finding he had an in- 
terest with men of power, were not sparing in 
their applications to him. In this situation he con- 
tinued four years and a half, exposed, through his 
principles of moderation, to the censure both of the 
episcopal and presbyterian parties. About this 
time he was intrusted, by the dutchess of Hamilton 
with the perusal and arrangement of all the papers 
relating to her father's and uncle's ministry, which 
induced him to compile " Memoirs of the dukes of 
Hamilton/' and occasioned his being invited to 
b3 



VI LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 

London, to receive farther information, concerning 
the transactions of those times, by the earl of Lau- 
derdale ; between whom and the duke of Hamilton 
he brought about a reconciliation. During his stay- 
in London he was offered a Scotch bishoprick, 
which he refused. Soon after his return to Glasgow 
he married the lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter of 
the earl of Cassilis. In 1673 he took another jour- 
ney to London ; where, at the express nomination 
of the king, after hearing him preach, he was 
sworn one of his majesty's chaplains in ordinary. 
He became likewise in high favour with his majesty 
and the duke of York. At his return to Edinburgh, 
finding the animosities between the dukes of Ha- 
milton and Lauderdale revived, he retired to his 
station at Glasgow ; but was obliged the next year 
to return to court, to justify himself against the 
accusations of the duke of Lauderdale, who had re- 
presented him as the cause and instrument of all 
the opposition the measures of the court had met 
with in the Scotch parliament. Thus he lost the 
favour of the court ; and, to avoid putting himself 
into the hands of his enemies, he resigned the pro- 
fessor's chair at Glasgow, and resolved to settle in 
London, being now about thirty years of age. 
Soon after he was offered the living of St. Giles's, 
Cripplegate, which he declined accepting, because 
he heard that it was intended for Dr. Fowler, after- 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. VU 

wards bishop of Gloucester. In 1675, our author, 
at the recommendation of lord Holies, and notwith- 
standing the interposition of the court against him, 
was appointed preacher at the Rolls chapel, by sir 
Harbottle Grimstone, master of the Rolls. The 
same year he was examined before the house of 
commons in relation to the duke of Lauderdale, 
whose conduct the parliament was then inquiring 
into. He was soon after chosen lecturer of St. 
Clement's, and became a very popular preacher. 

Although our author at this time had no parochial 
cure, he did not refuse his attendance to any sick 
person who desired it ; and was sent for, amongst 
others, to one who had been engaged in a criminal 
amour with Wilmot, earl of Rochester. The man- 
ner he treated her, during her illness, gave that lord 
a great curiosity of being acquainted with him ; and 
for a whole winter, in a conversation of at least one 
evening in a week, Burnet w T ent over all those to- 
pics with him, upon which sceptics, and men of 
loose morals, are wont to attack the Christian reli- 
gion. The effect of these conferences, in convincing 
the earl's judgment, and leading him to a sincere 
repentance, became the subject of a well-known 
and interesting narrative, which he published in 
1680, entitled, "An account of the Life and Death 
of the earl of Rochester." This work has lately 
been reprinted more than once, perhaps owing to 



Vlll LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 

the character Dr. Johnson gave of it in his ' ' Life of 
Rochester :" he there pronounces it a book " which 
the critic ought to read for its elegance, the philo- 
sopher for its arguments, and the saint for its 
piety." 

In 1682, when the administration was wholly 
changed in favour of the duke of York, he conti- 
nued steady in his adherence to his friends, and 
chose to sacrifice all his views at court, particularly 
a promise of the mastership of the Temple, rather 
than break off his correspondence with them. As 
he was about this time much resorted to by persons 
of all ranks and parties, as a pretence to avoid the 
returning of so many visits, he built a laboratory, 
and, for above a year, went through a course of 
chemical experiments. Upon the execution of the 
lord Russel, with whom he was familiarly ac- 
quainted, he was examined before the house of 
commons, with respect to that lord's speech upon 
the scaffold, in the penning of which he was sus- 
pected to have had a hand. Not long after he re- 
fused the offer of a living of three hundred pounds 
a year, in the gift of the earl of Halifax, who would 
have presented him, on condition of his residing 
still in London. In 1683 he went over to Paris, 
where he was well received by the court, and be- 
came acquainted with the most eminent persons, 
both popish and protestant. The year following 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. ix 

the resentment of the court against our author was 
so great, that he was discharged from his lecture at 
St. Clement's by virtue of the king's mandate to 
Dr. Hascard, rector of that parish ; and in Decem- 
ber the same year, by an order from the lord-keeper 
North to sir Harbottle Grimstone, he was forbidden 
preaching any more at the Rolls chapel. Upon the 
death of king Charles, and accession of king James, 
having obtained leave to go out of the kingdom, he 
went first to Paris, where he lived in great retire- 
ment, to avoid being involved in the conspiracies 
then forming in favour of the duke of Monmouth- 
But, having contracted an acquaintance with bri- 
gadier Stouppe, a protestant officer in the French 
service, he was prevailed upon to take a journey 
with him into Italy, and met with an agreeable re- 
ception at Rome and Geneva. After a tour through 
the southern parts of France, Italy, Switzerland, 
and many places of Germany, he came to Utrecht, 
and intended to have settled in some quiet retreat, 
within the Seven Provinces; but, being invited to 
the Hague by the prince and princess of Orange, he 
repaired thither, and had a great share in the coun- 
cils then carrying on, concerning the affairs of 
England. The high favour shewn him at the Hague 
disgusting the English court, king James wrote two 
severe letters against him to the princess of Orange, 
and insisted, by his ambassador, on his being for- 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



bidden the court; which, at the king's importuni- 
ty, was done ; though our author continued to be i 
employed and trusted as before. Soon after a pro- j 
secution for high treason was commenced against 
him, both in Scotland and England, but the States : 
refusing, at the demand of the English court, to 
deliver him up, designs were laid of seizing his 
person, and even destroying him, if he could be 
taken. About this time Dr. Burnet married Mrs. 
Mary Scott, a Dutch lady of large fortune and no- 
ble extraction. He had a very important share in 
the whole conduct of the Revolution in 1688 ; the 
project of which he gave early notice of to the court 
of Hanover, intimating that the success of this en- 
terprise must naturally end in an entail of the Bri- ! 
tish crown upon that illustrious house. 

King William had not been many days on the 
throne before Dr. Burnet was advanced to the see 
of Salisbury, and consecrated March 31, 1689. 
Our prelate had scarcely taken his seat in the 
house of lords, when he distinguished himself by 
declaring for moderate measures with regard to the 
clergy who scrupled to take the oaths, and for a 
toleration of the protestant dissenters ; and when 
the bill for declaring the rights and privileges of the 
subject, and settling the succession of the crown, 
was brought into parliament, he was the person 
appointed by king William to propose naming the 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XI 

dutchess (afterwards electress) of Brunswick, next 

in succession after the princess of Denmark and 

' her issue ; and when this succession afterwards 

: took place, he had the honour of being chairman 

' of the committee to whom the bill was referred. 

This made him considered by the house of Han- 

' over as one firmly attached to their interests, and 

engaged him in an epistolary correspondence with 

the princess Sophia, which lasted to her death. 

' After the session of Parliament was over, the bishop 

- went down to his diocese, where, by his pious, 

: prudent, and vigilant discharge of the episcopal 

functions, he gained universal esteem. 

As we have before given some account of his 
conduct as a parish priest, and as professor of di- 
vinity, it is no less necessary to specify some par- 
ticulars of his management when in this higher 
station. 

As he had always looked upon confirmation as 
the likeliest means of reviving a spirit of Christi- 
anity, he wrote a short " Directory," for preparing 
the youth upon such occasions, and sent copies of 
it, some months beforehand, to the minister of 
every parish where he intended to confirm. Every 
summer he made a tour, for six weeks or two 
months, through some district of his bishoprick, 
daily preaching and confirming from church to 
church, so as, in the compass of three years (be- 



Xll LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



sides his triennial visitation), to go through all the 
principal livings of his diocese. In these circuit? 
he entertained all the clergy that attended upon 
him at his own expense, and held conferences with 
them upon the chief heads of divinity. During 
his residence at Salisbury he constantly preached 
a Thursday's lecture, founded at St. Thomas's 
church : he likewise preached and confirmed every 
Sunday morning, in some church of that city, or 
of the neighbourhood round about it ; and, in the 
evening, he had a lecture in his own chapel, wherein 
he explained some portion of scripture. Every 
week, during the season of Lent, he catechised 
the youth of the two great schools in the cathedral 
church, and instructed them in order for confirma- 
tion. He endeavoured, as much as possible, to 
reform the abuses of the bishops' consistorial court. 
No part of the episcopal office was more strictly 
attended to by him, than the examination of can- 
didates for holy orders. He examined them him- 
self as to the proofs of the Christian religion, the 
authority of the Scriptures, and the nature of the 
gospel covenant ; and, a day or two before ordina- 
tion, he submitted all those whom he had accepted 
to the examination of the dean and prebendaries. 
As the qualification of clergymen for the pastoral 
care was always uppermost in his thoughts, he 
instituted at Salisbury a little nursery of students 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. . Xlll 

in divinity, being ten in number, to each of whom 
he allowed a salary of thirty pounds a year. Once 
every day he examined their progress in learning, 
and gave them a lecture on some speculative or 
practical point of divinity, or some part of the 
pastoral function. But this foundation being con- 
sidered as reflecting upon the method of education 
at the universities, he was prevailed upon, after 
some years, to lay it wholly aside. He was a 
warm and constant enemy to pluralities, where 
non-residence was the consequence of them, and 
in some cases hazarded a suspension, rather than 
give institution. In the point of residence he was 
so strict, that he immediately dismissed his own 
chaplains, upon their preferment to a cure of souls. 
He exerted the principle of toleration, which was 
deeply rooted in him, in favour of a nonjuring 
meeting-house at Salisbury, which he obtained the 
royal permission to connive at ; and this spirit of 
moderation brought over several dissenting fami- 
lies of his diocese to the communion of the church. 
In 1692 he published a treatise entitled " The 
Pastoral Care/' in which the duties of the clergy 
are laid down with great strictness, and enforced 
with no less zeal and warmth. In 1694 our au- 
thor preached the funeral sermon of archbishop 
Tillotson, with whom he had long kept up an 
intimate acquaintance and friendship, and whose 



XIV LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 

memory he defended in " A Vindication of Abp. 
Tillotson," 1696. The death of queen Mary, 
which happened the year following, drew from our 
author's pen that " Essay on her Character," which 
her uncommon talents merited at the hands of a 
person who enjoyed so high a degree of her favour 
and confidence. After the decease of that princess, 
through whose hands the affairs and promotions of 
the church had wholly passed, our prelate was one 
of the ecclesiastical commission appointed by the 
king to recommend to all bishopricks, deaneries, 
and other vacant benefices in his majesty's gift. 

In 1698 the bishop lost his wife by the small- 
pox : but the consideration of the tender age of 
his children, and his own avocations, soon induced 
him to supply that loss by a marriage with Mrs. 
Berkley. This year he was appointed preceptor 
to his highness the duke of Gloucester, and em- 
ployed great care in the education of that young 
prince. 

In 1704 the scheme for the augmentation of 
poor livings, first projected by bishop Burnet, took 
place, and passed into an act of parliament. This 
learned and eminent prelate died the 17th of 
March 1714-15, in the seventy-second year of 
his age, and was interred in the parish church of 
St. James, Clerk enwell, in London. 

The events of his life shew that both at home 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XV 

and abroad he stood high in the estimation of his 
contemporaries ; and his errors and prejudices, of 
whatever kind, would not have excited so many- 
enemies, had not his talents given him an unusual 
degree of consequence both in church and state. 
We shall conclude this article with some particu- 
lars of his private habits, which, as well as the 
above account of his life, stand uncontradicted, 
and surely entitle him to our respect. 

His time, we are told, was employed in one 
regular and uniform manner : he was a very early 
riser, seldom in bed later than five or six o'clock 
in the morning. Private meditation took up the 
two first hours, and the last half- hour of the day. 
His first and last appearance to his family was at 
the morning and evening prayers, which he always 
read himself, though his chaplains were present. 
He took the opportunity of the tea-table to instruct 
his children in religion, and in giving them his 
own comment upon some portion of scripture. He 
seldom spent less than six, often eight, hours a day 
in his study. He kept an open table, in which 
there was plenty, without luxury : his equipage 
was decent and plain ; and all his expenses gene- 
rous, but not profuse. He was a most affectionate 
husband to his wives ; and his love to his children 
expressed itself, not so much in hoarding up wealth 
for them, as in giving them the best education. 
c 2 



XVI LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 

After his sons had perfected themselves in the 
learned languages, under private tutors, he sent 
them to the university, and afterwards abroad, to 
finish their studies at Leyden, In his friendships 
he was warm, open-hearted, and constant ; and 
though his station and principles raised him many 
enemies, he always endeavoured, by the kindest 
good offices, to repay all their injuries, and over- 
come them by returning good for evil. He was a 
kind and bountiful master to his servants, and 
obliging to all in employment under him. His 
charities were a principal article of his expense. 
He gave an hundred pounds at a time for the aug- 
mentation of small livings ; he bestowed constant 
pensions on poor clergymen and their widows, on 
students for their education at the universities, 
and on industrious, but unfortunate families : he 
contributed frequent sums towards the repairs or 
building of churches and parsonage-houses, to all 
public collections, to the support of charity schools 
(one of which, for fifty children, at Salisbury, was 
w 7 holly maintained by him), and to the putting out 
apprentices to trades. Nor were his alms confined 
to one nation, sect, or party ; but want, and merit, 
in the object, were the only measures of his libe- 
rality. He looked upon himself, with regard to 
his episcopal revenue, as a mere trustee for the 
church, bound to expend the whole in a decent 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XV11 

maintenance of his station, and in acts of hospita- 
lity and charity ; and he had so faithfully balanced 
this account, that, at his death, no more of the 
income of his bishoprick remained to his family 
than was barely sufficient to pay his debts. 



c3 



PREFACE 

TO THE 

FIRST EDITION, PUBLISHED IN 1692. 



THIS subject, how important soever in itself, yet has 
been so little treated of, and will seem so severe in many 
parts of it, that if I had not judged this a necessary ser- 
vice to the church, which did more decently come from 
one, who, how undeserving soever he is, yet is raised to a 
post that may justify the writing on so tender a head ; I 
should never have undertaken it. But my zeal for the 
true interests of religion, and of this church, determined 
me to set about it : yet since my design is to correct things 
for the future rather than to reproach any for what is 
past, I have resolved to cast it rather into advices and 
rules, into plain and short directions, than into long and 
laboured discourses, supported by the shews of learning, 
and citations from fathers, and historical observations : 
this being the more profitable, and the less invidious way 
of handling the subject. 

It ought to be no imputation on a church, if too many 
of those that are dedicated to her service have not all the 
characters that are here set forth, and that are to be 
desired in clergymen. Even in the apostles' days there 
were false apostles, and false teachers : as one of the 
twelve was a traitor, and had a devil. Some loved the 
pre-eminence ; others loved this present world to a scan- 
dalous degree. Some of those that preached Christ, did 



XIX 



it 4< not sincerely, but out of contention* :" they vied with 
the apostles, and hoped to have carried away the esteem 
from them, even while they were suffering for the faith : 
for envying their credit, they designed to raise their own 
authority, by lessening the apostles, and so hoped to have 
" added affliction to their bonds." In the first and purest 
ages of the church we find great complaints of the neglects 
and disorders of the clergy of all ranks. Many became the 
stewards and bailiffs of other people's estates, and while 
they looked too diligently after those cares which did not 
belong to them, they even in those times of trial grew very 
remiss in the most important of all cares, which was their 
proper business. 

As soon as the empire became Christian, the authority, 
the immunity, and the other advantages, which by the 
bounty of princes followed the sacred functions, made 
them to be generally much desired ; and the elections 
being then for the most part popular, (though in some of 
the greater cities the magistracy took them into their 
hands, and the bishops of the province w T ere the judges 
both of the fitness of the person and of the regularity of 
the election) ; these were managed with much faction 
and violence, which often ended in blood, and that to so 
great an excess, that if we had not witnesses to many 
instances of this among the best men in those ages, it 
would look like an uncharitable imputation on those 
times, to think them capable of such enormities. Indeed 
the disorders, the animosities, the going so oft backwards 
and forwards in the matters of faith, as the emperors 
happened to be of different sides, are but too ample a 
proof of the corruptions that had then got into the 

* Phil. i. 16. 



XX PREFACE. 

church. And what can we think of the breach made in 
the churches of Africa by Donatus and his followers, upon 
so inconsiderable a point, as whether Cecilian and his 
ordainers had denied the faith in the last persecution, or 
not? which grew to that height, that almost in every 
town of Africa there were divided assemblies, and sepa- 
rating bishops, upon that account. Nor was this wound 
healed but with the utter ruin of those churches. St. 
Jerome, though partial enough to his own side, as appears 
by his espousing Damasus' interests, notwithstanding that 
vast effusion of blood that had been at his election ; which 
was set on by him, and continued for four days with so 
much violence, that in one night, and at one church, a 
hundred and seven and thirty were killed; yet he could 
not hold from laying open the corruptions of the clergy in 
a very severe style. He grew so weary of them, and they 
of him, that he went and spent the rest of his days at 
Bethlehem. 

Those corruptions were so much the more remarkable, 
because the eminent men of those times procured a great 
many canons to be made, both in provincial and general 
councils, for correcting abuses as soon as they observed 
them creeping into the church. But it is plain from St. 
Chrysostom's story, that though bad men did not oppose 
the making good rules, while they were so many dead 
letters in their registers, yet they could not bear the rigor- 
ous execution of them : so that those good canons do shew 
us indeed what were the growing abuses, of the times in 
which they were made, and how good men set themselves 
against them ; but are no sure indications of the reform- 
ation that was effected by them. 

The tottering state of the Roman empire, which had 
then fallen under a vast dissolution of discipline and man- 



PREFACE. XXI 

ners, and coming into feeble hands, was then sinking with 
its own weight, and was become on all sides an easy prey 
to its invaders, who were either Pagans or Arians, ought 
to have awakened the governors of the church to have ap- 
prehended their approaching ruin ; to have prevented it by 
their prayers and endeavours ; and to have corrected those 
abuses which had provoked God, and weakened and dis- 
tracted both church and empire. But if we may believe 
either Gildas here in Britain, or Salvian in France, they 
rather grew worse, more impenitent, and more insensible, 
when they saw the judgments of God coming upon the 
empire, province after province rent from it, and overrun 
by the barbarians. 

When that great wound was in some sort healed, and 
a second form of Christianity rose up and prevailed again 
in the western parts, and the world became Christian, 
with the alloy that dark and superstitious ages had brought 
into that holy doctrine ; then all the rules of the former 
ages were so totally forgotten, and laid aside, that the 
clergy universally lost their esteem : and though Charles 
the Great, and his son, held a great many councils for cor- 
recting these abuses, and published many capitulars on the 
same design, yet all was to no purpose. There was neither 
knowledge nor virtue enough left to reform a corruption 
that was become universal. The clergy by these disorders 
fell under a general contempt ; and out of that rose the 
authority, as well as the wealth of the monastic orders; 
and when riches and power had corrupted them, the beg- 
ging orders took away the credit from both : yet even their 
reputation, which the outward severity of their rule, habit, 
and manner of life did both establish and maintain long, 
was at last so generally lost, that no part or body of the 
Roman clergy had credit enough to stop the progress of 



XX11 PREFACE. 

the Reformation : which was in a great measure occasioned 
by the scorn and hatred that fell on them, and which was 
so spread over all parts of Europe, that to it even their 
own historians do impute the great advances that Luther's 
doctrine made for about fifty years together ; whole king- 
doms and provinces embracing it as it were all of the 
sudden. 

It has now for above an hundred years made a full 
stand, and in most places it has rather lost ground than 
gained any. The true account of this is not easily given ; 
the doctrine is the same ; and it has been of late defended 
with greater advantages, with more learning, and better 
reasoning, than it was at first; yet not with much less 
success. The true reason of the slackening of that work, 
must be imputed to the reformation made in several 
points with relation to the manners and the labours of 
the clergy, by the church of Rome, and the depravation 
under which most of the reformed churches are fallen. 
For the manners and the labours of the clergy, these are 
real arguments, which al people do both understand and 
feel ; they have a much more convincing force, they are 
more visible, and persuade more universally, than books 
can do, which are little read and less considered. And 
indeed the bulk of mankind is so made, that there is no 
working on them, but by moving their affections, and 
commanding their esteem. It cannot be denied but that 
the council of Trent established the errors of popery in 
such a manner as to cut off all possibility of ever treating, 
or re -uniting with them; since those decisions, and their 
infallibility, which is their foundation, are now so twisted 
together; yet they establish such a reformation in disci- 
pline, as may make churches that pretend to a more glo- 
rious title justly ashamed. For though there are such 



PREFACE. XX111 

reserves made for the plenitude of the papal authority, 
that in great instances, and for a favourite, all may be 
broke through; yet the most notorious abuses are so 
struck at, and this has been in many places so effectually 
observed, chiefly where they knew that their deport- 
ment was looked into, and watched over by protestants, 
that it must be acknowledged, that the cry of the scandals 
of religious houses is much laid. And though there is still 
much ignorance among their mass priests ; yet their parish 
priests are generally another sort of men, they are well in- 
structed in their religion, lead regular lives, and perform 
their parochial duties with a most wonderful diligence : 
they do not only say mass, and the other public functions 
daily, but they are almost perpetually employing them- 
selves in the several parts of their cures: instructing the 
youth, hearing confessions, and visiting the sick : and be- 
sides all this, they are under the constant obligation of the 
breviary: there is no such thing as non -residence or 
plurality to be heard of in whole countries of that com- 
munion ; and though about cathedrals, and in greater 
cities, the vast number of priests give still great and just 
occasion to censure, yet the parish priests have almost uni- 
versally recovered the esteem of the people : they are no 
more disposed to think ill of them, or to hearken to any 
thing that may give them a just cause, or at least a plausi- 
ble colour, for departing from them. So that the reforma- 
tion that popery hath been forced to make, has in a great 
measure stopped the progress of the reformation of the 
doctrine and worship that did so long carry every thing 
before it. 

But this is the least melancholy part of the account 
that may be given of this matter. The reformers began 
that blessed work with much zeal ; they and their first 



XXIV PREFACE. 

successors carried it on with learning and spirit: they 
were active in their endeavours, and constant and patient 
in their sufferings ; and these things turned the esteem of 
the world, which was alienated from popery, by the igno- 
rance and scandals of the clergy, all towards them. But 
when they felt the warmth of the protection and encou- 
ragement that princes and states gave them, they insensibly 
slackened : they fell from their first heat and love ; they 
began to build houses for themselves, and their families, 
and neglected the house of God ; they rested satisfied with 
their having reformed the doctrine and worship ; but did 
not study to reform the lives and manners of their people : 
and while in their offices they lamented the not having a 
public discipline in the church, as it was in the primitive 
times; they have either made no attempts at all, or at 
least very faint ones, for restoring it. And thus, while 
popery has purified itself from many former abuses, 
reformed churches have added new ones to the old, that 
they still retain, and are fond of. Zeal in devotion, and 
diligence in the pastoral care, are fallen under too visible 
and too scandalous a decay. And whereas the understand- 
ing of the Scriptures and an application to that sacred 
study, was at first the distinguishing character of protes- 
tants, for which they were generally nicknamed gospellers : 
these holy writings are now so little studied, that such as 
are obliged to look narrowly into the matter, find great 
cause of regret and lamentation, from the gross ignorance 
of such as are either in orders, or that pretend to be put in 
them. 

But the most capital and comprehensive of all abuses 
is, that the false opinion of the worst ages of popery, that 
made the chief, if not the only obligation of priests to be 
the performing offices, and judged, that if these were done, 



PREFACE. XXV 

the chief part of their business was also done, by which 
the pastoral care came to be in a great measure neglected, 
does continue still to leaven us : while men imagine that 
their whole work consists in public functions, and so 
reckon, that if they eitberdo these themselves, or procure 
and hire another person in holy orders to do them, that 
then they answer the obligation that lies on them. And 
thus the pastoral care, the instructing, the exhorting, the 
admonishing and reproving, the directing and conducting, 
the visiting and comforting the people of the parish, is 
generally neglected ; while the incumbent does not think 
fit to look after it, and the curate thinks himself bound to 
nothing but barely to perform offices according to agree- 
ment. 

It is chiefly on design to raise the sense of the obliga- 
tions of the clergy to the duties of the pastoral care, that 
this book is written. Many things do concur in our pre- 
sent circumstances, to awaken us of the clergy, to mind 
and do our duty with more zeal and application than ever. 
It is very visible, that in this present age the reformation 
is not only at a stand, but is going back, and grows sensi- 
bly weaker and weaker. Some churches have been plucked 
up by the roots, and brought under a total desolation and 
dispersion ; and others have fallen under terrible oppres- 
sions and shakings. We have seen a design formed, and 
carried on long, for the utter destruction of that great 
work. The clouds were so thick gathered over us, that 
we saw we were marked out for destruction : and when 
that was once compassed, our enemies saw well enough, 
that the rest of their designs would be more easily brought 
about. It is true, our enemies intended to set us one upon 
another by turns, to make us do half their work ; and to 
have still an abused party among us ready to carry on 

D 



XXVI PREFACE. 

their ends ; for they thought it too bold an attempt to fall 
upon all at once : but while they were thus shifting hands, 
it pleased God to cut them short in their designs, and to 
blast that part of them in which we were concerned, so 
entirely that now they carry them on more bare-facedly ; 
and drive at conquest, which is at one stroke to destroy 
our church and religion, our laws and our properties. 

In this critical state of things, we ought not only to 
look at the instruments of the calamities that have fallen 
so heavily on so many protestant churches, and of the 
dangers that hang over the rest ; but we ought chiefly to 
look up to that God, who seems to be provoked at the 
whole Reformation, because they have not walked suitably 
to the light that they have so long enjoyed, and the bless- 
ings which had been so long continued to them, but have 
corrupted their ways before him. They have lost the 
power of religion, whilst they have seemed to magnify the 
form of it, and have been zealous for opinions and cus- 
toms : and therefore God has, in his wrath, taken even that 
form from them, and has loathed their solemn assemblies ; 
and brought them under a famine of the word of the Lord, 
which they had so much despised. While these things 
are so, and while we find that we ourselves are as a brand 
plucked out of the fire, which may be thrown back into it 
again, if we are not alarmed by the just but unsearchable 
judgments of God, which have wasted other churches so 
terribly, while they have only frighted us : what is more 
evident, than that the present state of things, and the 
signs of the times, call aloud upon the whole nation to bring 
forth fruits meet for repentance : since the axe is laid to 
the root of the tree. And as this indeed concerns the 
body of the nation, so we, who are the priests and minis- 
ters of the Lord, are under more particular obligations, 



PREFACE. XXV11 

first to look into our own ways, and to reform whatsoever 
is amiss among us, and then to be intercessors for the peo- 
ple committed to our charge; to be mourning for their 
sins, and, by our secret fastings and prayers, to be stand- 
ing in those breaches which our crying abominations have 
made : and so to be averting those judgments which may 
be ready to break in upon us ; and chiefly to be lifting up 
our voices, like trumpets, to shew our people their trans- 
gressions : to be giving them faithful warning, from which 
we may expect this blessed success, that we may at least 
gain upon such a number, that for their sakes, God who 
will not slay the righteous with the wicked, may be yet 
entreated for our sins ; and that the judgments which 
hang over us, being quite dissipated, his gospel, together 
with peace and plenty, may still dwell among us, and may 
shine from us, with happy influences, to all the ends of 
the earth. And even such pastors as shall faithfully do 
their duty, but without any success, may depend upon 
this, that they shall save their own souls ; and shall have 
a distinguished fate, if we should happen to fall under a 
common calamity : they having on them not only the mark 
of mourners and intercessors, but of faithful shepherds ; 
whereas, if an overflowing scourge should break in upon 
us, we have all possible reason, both from the judgments 
of God and the present situation of affairs, to believe that 
it will begin at the sanctuary, at those who have profaned 
the holy things, and have made the daily sacrifice to be 
loathed. 

There is another, and perhaps yet a more dismal cha- 
racter of the present state of the age, that calls on the 
clergy to consider well both their own deportment and 
the obligations that lie upon them; which is the growing 
atheism and impiety that is daily gaining ground, not only 
d2 



XXV1U PREFACE. 

among us, but indeed all Europe over. There is a circula- 
tion observed in the general corruptions of nations : some- 
times ignorance and brutality overruns the world, that 
makes way for superstition and idolatry: when mankind 
is disgusted with these, then fantastical and enthusiastical 
principles, and under these hypocritical practices, have 
their course : these being seen through, give great occa- 
sions to profaneness; and with that atheism, and a disbelief 
of all religion, at least of all revealed religion, is nourished : 
and that is very easily received by depraved minds, but 
very hardly rooted out of them. For though it is very 
easy to beat an inquirer into things out of all speculative 
atheism ; yet when a disbelief of sacred matters, and a 
profane contempt of them, has once vitiated one's mind, 
it is a very extraordinary thing, and next to miraculous, 
to see such an one reduced. Now this I am forced to 
declare, that having had much free conversation with 
many that have been fatally corrupted that way, they 
have very often owned to me, that nothing promoted this 
so much in them, as the very bad opinion which they took 
up of all clergymen of all sides; they did not see in them 
that strictness of life, that contempt of the world, that 
zeal, that meekness, humility and charity, — that diligence 
and earnestness, with relation to the great truths of the 
Christian religion, which they reckoned they would most 
certainly have, if they themselves firmly believe it. There- 
fore they concluded, that those, whose business it was 
more strictly to inquire into the truth of their religion, 
knew that it was not so certain, as they themselves, for 
other ends, endeavoured to make the world believe it was : 
and that though for carrying on of their own authority 
or fortunes, which, in one word, they call their trade, they 
seemed to be very positive in affirming the truth of their 






PREFACE. XXIX 

doctrines ; yet they in their own hearts did not believe it ; 
since they lived so little suitable to it, and were so much 
set on raising themselves by it ; and so little on advancing 
the honour of their profession, by an exemplary piety, and 
a shining conversation. 

This is a thing not to be answered by being angry at 
them for saying it, or by reproaching »ucL as repeat it, as 
if they were enemies to the church; these words of heat 
and faction signifying nothing to work upon, or convince 
any. For how little strength soever there may be in this, 
as it is made an argument, it is certainly so strong a pre- 
judice, that nothing but a real refutation of it, by the 
eminent virtues and labours of many of the clergy, will 
ever conquer it. To this, as a branch or part of it, an- 
other consideration from the present state of things is to 
be added, to call upon the clergy to set about the duties 
of their calling ; and that is, the contempt they are gene- 
rally fallen under, the injustice they daily meet with, in 
being denied their rights, and that by some out of prin- 
ciple, and by others out of downright and undisguised 
sacrilege. I know a great deal of this is too justly and too 
truly to be cast on the poverty of the clergy : but what 
can we say, when we find often the poorest clerks in the 
richest livings? whose incumbents, not content to devour 
the patrimony of the church, while they feed themselves, 
and not the flock out of it, are so scandalously hard in 
their allowance to their curates, as if they intended equally 
to starve both curate and people. And is it to be sup- 
posed., that the people will think themselves under a very 
strict obligation of conscience, to pay religiously all that 
is due to one, who seems to think himself under no obli- 
gation to labour for it? And since it is a maxim, founded 
upon natural equity, that the benefice is given for the 
d3 



XXX PREFACE. 

office ; men will not have great scruples in denying the 
benefice, where the office is neglected, or ill-performed. 
And as for the too common contempt that is brought on 
the clergy, how guilty soever those may be, who out of 
hatred to their profession despise them for their work's 
sake ; yet w 7 e who feel ourselves under these disadvan- 
tages, ought to reflect on those words of the prophet, and 
see how far they are applicable to us: "The priest's lips 
should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at 
his mouth : for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 
But ye are departed out of the way ; ye have caused many 
to stumble at the law ; — therefore have I also made you 
contemptible and base before all the people, according as 
ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the 
law*.'' If we studied to honour God, and so to do honour 
to our profession, we might justly hope that he would 
raise it again to that credit which is due to it ; and that 
he would make even our enemies to be at peace with us, 
or at least afraid to hurt or offend us. And in this we 
have good reason to rest assured, since we do not find 
many instances of clergymen, who live and labour, who 
preach and visit as they ought to do, that are under any 
eminent degrees of contempt : if some do despise those 
that are faithful to their trust, yet they must do it 
secretly ; they dare not shew it, as long as their deport- 
ment procures them the esteem which we must confess 
does generally follow true worth, and hearty labours in the 
ministry. 

These are things of such consequence, that it may seem 
a consideration too full of ill nature, of emulation, and of 
jealousy, if I should urge upon the clergy the divisions 

* Mai. ii. 7, 8, 9. 



PREFACE XXXI 

and separation that is formed among us ; though there is 
a terrible word in the prophet, that belongs but too evi- 
dently to this likewise : " The pastors are become brutish, 
and have not sought the Lord ; therefore, they shall not 
prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered*." If we 
led such exemplary lives as became our character, if we 
applied ourselves wholly to the duties of our profession, if 
we studied to outlive and outlabour those that divide from 
us ; we might hope, by the blessing of God, so far to over- 
come their prejudices, and to gain both upon their esteem 
and affections, that a very small matter might go a great 
way towards the healing of those wounds which have so 
long weakened and distracted us. Speculative arguments 
do not reach the understandings of the greater part, who 
are only capable of sensible ones : and the strongest rea- 
sonings will not prevail, till we first force them to think 
the better of our church for what they see in ourselves, 
and make them wish to be of a communion in which they 
see so much truth, and unaffected goodness and worth : 
when they are once brought so far, it will be easy to com- 
pass all the rest. If we did generally mind our duties, and 
discharge them faithfully, this would prepare such as 
mean well in their separation from us, to consider better 
of the grounds on which they maintain it. And that 
. will best enforce the arguments that we have to lay before 
them. And as for such as divide from us with bad designs 
and an unrelenting spite, they will have a small party, 
and a feeble support, if there were no more occasion given 
to work on the affections of the people by our errors and 
disorders. 

If, then, either the sense of the wrath of God, or the 

* Jer. x. 21. 



XXX11 PREFACE. 

desire of his favour and protection ; if zeal for our church 
and country ; if a sense of the progress of atheism and 
irreligion ; if the contempt that falls on us, and the injus- 
tices that are daily done us ; if a desire to heal and unite, 
to purify and perfect this our church ; if either the con- 
cerns of this world, or of the next, can work upon us, and 
affect us ; all these things concur to call on us, to apply 
our utmost care and industry to raise the honour of our 
holy profession, to walk worthy of it, to perform the en- 
gagements that we came under at the altar, when we were 
dedicated to the service of God and the church ; and in all 
things both to adorn our religion and our church. 

It is not our boasting that the church of England is the 
best reformed and the best constituted church in the 
world, that will signify much to convince others : we are 
too much parties to be believed in our own cause. There 
was a generation of men that cried, The temple of the 
Lord ! the temple of the Lord ! as loud as we can cry, 
The church of England ! the church of England ! when 
yet by their sins they were pulling it down, and kindling 
that fire which consumed it. It will have a better grace 
to see others boast of our church, from what thay observe 
in us, than for us to be crying it up with our words, when 
our deeds do decry it. Our enemies will make severe in- 
ferences from them ; and our pretensions will be thought 
vain and impudent things, as long as our lives contradict 
them. 

It was on design to raise in myself, and in others, 
a deep sense of the obligations that we lie under, of the 
duties of our functions, of the extent of them, and of the 
rewards that follow them; and to observe the proper me- 
thods of performing them, so as they may be of the great- 
est advantage both to ourselves and others, that I have 



PREFACE. XXX111 

entered on these meditations. They have been for many 
years the chief subjects of my thoughts : if few have writ 
on them among us, yet we have St. Gregory Nazianzen's 
Apologetic, St, Chrysostom's Books of the Priesthood, 
Gregory the Great's Pastoral, and Bernard's Book of 
Consideration, among the ancients : and a very great 
number of excellent treatises, writ lately in France, upon 
them. I began my studies in divinity with reading these, 
and I never yet grew weary of them ; they raise so many 
noble designs, they offer such schemes, and carry so much 
of unction and life in them, that I hope an imperfect essay 
this way may have some effect. For the Searcher of 
hearts knows, I have no design in it, save this of stirring 
up, in myself and other, the gift which was given by the 
imposition of hands. 



PKEFACE 

TO 
THE THIRD EDITION. 



IT is above twenty years since this book was first pub- 
lished by me ; and now that those who have a concern in | 
it think fit to reprint it, I thought it became me to review 
it carefully, to see if there was cause given to alter any 
part of it, or to add any thing to it. 

I wrote it when I was newly put into the post in which, 
by the providence of God, I still am ; so that a longer 
course of experience and observation may have brought 
more things to my view than I could at that time reflect 
on. 

I own this is my favourite book : which, if it has raised 
indignation in the minds of some, who are perhaps sensible 
that many things in it touch them in too tender a part ; 
yet, on the other hand, it has brought me such serious 
acknowledgments from many persons, to me otherwise 
unknown but by their letters, of the benefit they received by 
it, that I humbly bless God who made me an instrument 
in any sort of promoting his glory, and edifying his church, 
by awakening the consciences of so many clergymen to a 
better sense of their duty, and to more diligence in the 
discharge of it. 

I am now in the 70th year of my age ; and as I cannot 
speak long to the world in any sort, so I cannot hope for 
a more solemn occasion than this, of speaking with all due 



PREFACE. XXXV 

freedom both to the present and to the succeeding ages : 
therefore I lay hold on it to give a free vent to those sad 
thoughts that lie on my mind both day and night, and are 
the subject of many secret mournings. I dare appeal to 
that God to whom the secrets of my heart are known, and 
to whom I am shortly to give an account of my ministry, 
that I have the true interests of this church ever before 
my eyes, and that I pursue them with a sincere and fer- 
vent zeal : if I am mistaken in the methods I follow, God, 
to whom the integrity of my heart is known, will not lay 
that to my charge. I cannot look on without the deepest 
concern, when I see imminent ruin hanging over this 
church, and by consequence over the whole reformation. 
The outward state of things is black enough, God knows ; 
but that \rhich heightens my fears rises chiefly from the 
inward state into which we are unhappily fallen. I will, in 
examining this, confine myself to that which is the subject 
of the following book — I mean the clergy. 

Our ember weeks are the burden and grief of my life. 
The much greater part of those who come to be ordained 
are ignorant to a degree not to be apprehended by those 
who are not obliged to know it. The easiest part of know- 
ledge is that to which they are the greatest strangers ; I 
mean the plainest parts of the Scriptures, which they say, 
in excuse of their ignorance, that their tutors in the uni- 
versities never mention the reading of to them ; so that 
they can give no account, or at least a very imperfect one, 
of the contents even of the gospels. Those who have read 
some few books, yet never seem to have read the Scrip- 
tures. Many cannot give a tolerable account even of the 
catechism itself, how short and plain soever. They cry, 
and think it a sad disgrace to be denied orders, though the 
ignorance of some is such, that, in a well-regulated state 



XXXVI PREFACE. 

of things, they would appear not knowing enough to be 
admitted to the holy sacrament. 

This does often tear my heart. The case is not much 
better in many, who having got into orders, come for 
institution, and cannot make it appear that they have 
read the Scriptures, or any one good book, since they 
were ordained ; so that the small measure of knowledge 
upon which they got into holy orders not being improved, 
is in a way to be quite lost ; and then they think it a 
great hardship if they are told, they must know the 
Scriptures and the body of divinity better, before they can 
be trusted with a care of souls. These things pierce 
one's soul, and make him often cry out, " Oh that I had 
wings like a dove, for then would 1 fly away and be at 
rest V What are we like to grow to ? In what a case are 
we, to deal with any adversary, atheist, papist, or dis- 
senters, or in any sort to promote the honour of God, and 
carry on the great concerns of the Gospel, when so gross 
an ignorance in the fundamentals of religion has spread 
itself so much among those who ought to teach others ; 
and yet need that one teach them the first principles of 
the oracles of God. 

Politics and party eat out among us not only study 
and learning, but that which is the only thing that is 
more valuable, a true sense of religion, with a sincere 
zeal in advancing that for which the Son of God both 
lived and died, and to which those who are received 
into holy orders have vowed to dedicate their lives and 
labours. Clamours of scandal in any of the clergy are 
not frequent, it is true ; and God be thanked for it : but a 
remiss unthinking course of life, with little or no appli- 
cation to study, and the bare performing of that which, 
if not done, would draw censures when complained of, 



PREFACE. XXXVU 

without ever pursuing the duties of the pastoral care in 
any suitable degree, is but too common, as well as too evi- 
dent. 

But if there is too visible a coldness among us in that 
which requires our greatest heat and zeal, there is a 
great deal of flaming heat about matters in which more 
gentleness and a milder temper would both look better, 
and more effectually compass that which is designed by- 
it : I mean the bringing the dissenters into our com- 
munion. Bitter railings, and a rough behaviour, cannot 
make many converts. To study the grounds of their 
separation thoroughly, to answer them calmly and solidly, 
and to treat their persons with all gentleness, expressing 
no uneasiness at the liberty granted them by law, is a 
method that will never fail of succeeding to a great 
degree, especially on the rising generation. Other me- 
thods do confirm their prejudices, and heighten their 
aversion to those who treat them as enemies on design 
to ruin them, and not as friends on design to gain 
them. 

God be thanked, we are delivered from a remnant of 
popery that stuck too long to us, I mean persecution 
for conscience sake ; for the breaches on a man's liberty 
or goods are as really a persecution, as that which strikes 
at his person. They may be in some instances more un- 
easy, as a single death is not so formidable as to be forced 
to live under great necessities, perhaps with a numerous 
family. And if we judge of this matter by our Saviour's 
rule, of doing to others what we would have others do to 
us, our consciences would soon decide the question : if we 
will but honestly ask ourselves, how we would have those 
of another religion deal with us, if we were living in 
countries where we must depart from the legal establish- 

E 



XXXV111 PREFACE. 

ment, if we do truly follow the dictates of our conscience. 
But if our zeal in point of conformity seems too strong, 
there is no great reason to suspect many of much zeal 
with relation to popery, though that is our standing 
enemy, perpetually employed in working our ruin, with 
many hands and much heat ; while we seem to be in a 
state of indolence and insensibility on that side, as if there 
was no danger from thence. When at any time we are 
in a fright, w T e are apt to cry out ; but that is no sooner 
over, than we are in no apprehensions of any further danger. 
And, to their great comfort, we have found out a new 
division to add to those we laboured under before ; which 
we know they managed very dexterously for their own 
ends ; shifting sides as a turn was to be served by it : but 
now the mine is more successfully played, since not only 
the breach between us and dissenters is very artfully 
widened, but we are unhappily broken among ourselves ; 
and under the names of high and low church, there is a 
new scene opened for jealousy and animosity, which has 
been managed with such art and success, that bodies of 
men, owning the same religion and worship, and the same 
government both in temporals and spirituals, are yet as 
much alienated from one another, if not more, than if their 
differences were ever so great and visible. 

I will say nothing that may justly provoke any; but 
since I myself am ranked among the low churchmen, I will 
open all that I know that is particular to them ; and then 
leave it to others to judge what reason can be given for 
entertaining such hard thoughts of them. 

They are cordially and conscientiously zealous for the 
church, as established by law; but yet they think no 
human constitution is so perfect, but that it may be made 
better, and that the church would be both more secure 



PREFACE. XXXIX 

and more unexceptionable, if the administration of the 
discipline were put into other hands, and in a better 
method. They lay the foundation of all that they be- 
lieve in the Christian religion in the Scriptures : these and 
these only are the measures and standard of their faith. 
No great names nor shews of authority overawe them ; 
they search the Scriptures, there they seek and find their 
faith. 

They think that in matters declared to be indifferent, 
no harm could follow on it, if some regard were had to the 
scruples of those who divide from us, in order to the 
fortifying the whole by uniting us among ourselves ; but 
till that can be done, they think a kind deportment to- 
wards dissenters softens their prejudices, and disposes 
them to hearken to the reasons which they offer to them, 
with all the force they can, but without the asperity of 
words, or a contemptuous behaviour ; in which they have 
succeeded so well, that they see no cause to change their 
conduct. 

They do indeed make a great difference between dis- 
senters and papists : they consider the one as a handful 
of people true to the protestant religion and to our na- 
tional interests, not capable of doing us much mischief, 
and who are, as far as appears to them, contented with 
their toleration, and are only desirous to secure and main- 
tain it. They have another and a very different opinion 
of popery : they consider that church, not only with rela- 
tion to the many opinions and practices held by them, 
such as transubstantiation, purgatory, and the worship- 
ping saints and images, and a great many more ; they are 
persuaded that these are false and ill-grounded, but they 
could easily bear with them, as they do with other errors : 
but they consider popery as a conspiracy against the 



XI PBEFACE. 

liberty and peace of mankind, on design to engross the 
wealth of the world into their own hands ; and to destroy 
all that stand in their way, sticking at no practice, 
how false, base, or cruel soever, that .can advance this. 
This is the true ground of their zeal against popery, 
and indeed against every thing that has a tendency that 
way. 

The pretending to an independency of the church on 
the state, is not only, in their opinion, a plain attack 
made on the supremacy vested by law in the crown, and a 
casting a disgrace on our reformers, and on every step 
made in the reformation, which are openly owned by the 
chief promoters of this new conceit; but it is a direct 
opposition to the famed place, so much stretched by the 
same persons to serve other purposes, in the xiiith of the 
Romans, "Let every soul be subject to the higher pow- 
ers;" in which all subjects are equally comprehended. The 
laws of God are certainly of a superior obligation to any 
human authority : but where these laws are silent, cer- 
tainly all subjects, of what sort soever, are bound to obey 
the laws of the land where they live. 

The raising the power and authority of sacred functions 
beyond what is founded on clear warrants in Scripture, is, 
they think, the readiest way to give the world such a 
jealousy of them, and such an aversion to them, as may 
make them lose the authority that they ought to have 
while they pretend to that they have not. 

They dare not unchurch all the bodies of the protest- 
ants beyond sea ; nor deny to our dissenters at home the 
federal rights common to all Christians, or leave them to 
uncovenanted mercy. They do not annul their baptisms, 
or think that they ought to be baptized again in a more 
regular manner, before they can be accounted Christians. 



PREFACE. xli 

They know of no power in a priest to pardon sin, other 
than the declaring the Gespel pardon, upon the conditions 
on which it is offered. They know 7 of no sacrifice in the 
eucharist, other than the commemorating that on the 
cross, with the oblation of the prayers, praises, and alms- 
giving, prescribed in the office. They are far from con- 
demning private judgment in matters of religion : this 
strikes at the root of the wiiole Reformation, which, 
could never have been compassed, if private men have 
not a right to judge for themselves : on the contrary, 
they think every man is bound to judge for himself, 
which indeed he ought to do in the fear of God, and with 
all humility and caution. They look on all these notions 
as steps towards popery : though they do not conclude, 
that all those who have made them designed that by so 
doing. 

This is a short account of the low churchmen's notions, 
with relation to matters of religion among us. As to our 
temporal concerns, they think all that obedience and 
submission that is settled by our laws, to the persons of 
our princes, ought to be paid them, for conscience sake; 
but if a misguided prince shall take on him to dissolve 
our constitution, and to subject the laws to his pleasure, 
they think that if God offers a remedy, it is to be received 
with all thankfulness. For these reasons they rejoice in 
the revolution, and continue faithful and true to the 
settlement then made, and to the subsequent settlements. 
They think there is a full power in the legislature to 
settle the crown, and to secure the nations : and so they 
have taken the oaths enjoined with a good conscience, 
and with fixed resolutions of adhering firmly to them, 
without any other views but such as the laws and the 
oaths pursuant to therri do direct. They know of no 
e3 



Xlii PREFACE. 

unalterable or indefeasible right, but what is founded on 
the law. 

This is their fixed principles, and they are the more 
fixed in this, when they remember that a prince educated 
among us, and singularly obliged by the zeal our church 
expressed for his advancement to the throne, upon which 
he made great acknowledgments and promises, and who 
by his temper seemed as much inclined to keep them as 
his religion could admit of; yet upon his elevation did so 
entirely forget all this, that he seemed peculiarly sharpened 
against those who of all others had the least reason to have 
expected it from him. 

This was notorious and evident in the father : what then 
can be expected from him who calls himself his son, who 
has had his breeding in an absolute government, where 
protestants are persecuted with an unrelenting cruelty, and 
who has been obliged to wander so long beyond sea, and 
stands attainted and abjured here, and is loaded with other 
indignities, but that as his religion is still the same cruel 
and bloody conspiracy against protestants that it was, so it 
must have its full swing in one sharpened by so much pro- 
vocation ? 

It betrays a monstrous ignorance of the principles and 
maxims, as well as of the history of popery, to imagine 
that they can ever depart from the design of extirpating 
heretics settled by so much authority, held sacred by them. 
Every look in the low churchman towards a popish pre- 
tender is to him both perjury and treason. 

I have thus freely opened all that I know of the prin- 
ciples of those called the low churchmen among us. I 
will not pretend to tell what are the principles^ of those 
called the high churchmen : I know them too little to 
pretend to tell what their maxims and views are. I will 



PREFACE. Xliil 

with great joy own my mistakes and misapprehensions of 
any of them, who, upon this candid avowing what the low 
churchmen hold, will come to have juster and more chari- 
table thoughts of them j and upon that will concur with 
them in such measures and counsels as may yet give us 
some hope, if that is not now too late, or may be at least 
an abatement of our misery, if not a reprieve from it. I 
unwillingly mention a long disappointing among us as to 
convocation matters. 

I will avoid saying any thing that may give a new 
irritation, my design being to do all 1 can to heal our 
breaches. I will not enter into the merits of the cause 
further, than to observe that the bishops have begun no 
new practices, but go in the steps in which their prede- 
cessors went, without varying from their practices in a 
tittle : they find themselves bound down to the methods 
they adhere to, by such a series of precedents, that unless 
the legislature interposes, they think they cannot alter 
them. They have made no new attempts, nor have they 
invaded any rights of which they found the clergy in 
possession. And what is there in all this to occasion such 
tragical outcries; and to engage so many of the bodies of 
the clergy into jealousies of their bishops, and into com- 
binations against them, as if they were betraying the 
church and its liberties ? 

'Tis true, many of us opposed the occasional bill, from 
which such great things were expected. We thought 
there were ill designs under it ; we thought it ill-timed ; 
we looked on it as tending to a breach on the toleration : 
and now that the bill is past without any opposition, we 
hear of no great effects it has had ; nor are jealousies 
extinguished : the chief promoters of it are scarce thanked 
for it. But since we are so openly attacked, and, as it 



xliv 



PREFACE. 



were, exposed to the insults and fury of distracted multi- 
tudes, we may be pardoned if we venture on somewhat 
like an imitation of what the great apostle writ upon a 
like occasion, calling it indeed a folly, for it will pass for 
such with inveterate and inflamed spirits. What have 
other bishops done to express their zeal for the church, 
and their fidelity to their vows and to what became their 
character and station, that we have not done ? Have we 
not lived so that we may say, Ye are witnesses ? and, 
which is more, God also, how holily, justly, and unblame- 
ably we have behaved ourselves among you ? How ready 
have we been preaching, in season and out of season, 
opening the whole counsels of God to the flock committed 
to our charge ! How careful are we in examining and 
instructing those who come to us for orders and institu- 
tions ! How frequent in confirming, and in the other 
duties belonging to our function ! So that we may say, 
What have we done, or what have we left undone, to 
merit the unkind returns we meet with? What reason 
have we given to the world, by our manner of living, to 
think we had our posts only for the advantages we reap 
by them, and that we do it even against our consciences, 
and are only waiting an opportunity to betray them ? 

This is such a pitch both of impiety and baseness, that 
few of the worst sort of libertines are capable of it ; and 
yet how oft have we been charged with it ! If this had 
come only from the enemies of our present constitution, 
on design to destroy the reputation to which we hope we 
have some right, it was what we might expect from 
active and indigent writers, who are looking for another 
face of things, hoping then to be enriched by our spoils. 
But that those who have taken all the oaths enjoined by 
law, and who daily concur in all the public devotions, 



PREFACE. Xlv 

should entertain and spread such calumnies, and act as 
the under- workmen to those who seek our ruin, is that 
which deserves the severest censures. 

Great regard is indeed due to such as avow their prin- 
ciples, and act according to them ; especially when they 
are losers and sufferers by it : even their passions and 
frailties are to be lamented and gently censured. But the 
impiety of men's taking oaths against their consciences, 
and, in hope to compensate for that, their acting contrary 
to them, is of so monstrous a nature, that our language 
does not afford words black enough to set out its de- 
formity. 

We are soon to go off the stage, to a region of peace 
and love, where malice and envy cannot follow us. He 
to whom our integrity is known, will pardon all our 
frailties, and even all our omissions, and will deal with us 
according to our sincere endeavours ; from whose hands 
we may expect to receive the more entire reward, the less 
of it that we receive from men. 

Our late blessed primate was persecuted by malice 
to the grave ; and that has followed him ever since he 
was laid in the dust. His great concern at those black 
efforts of malice that he was pursued with, was, because 
he saw they stood in the way to defeat all the good de- 
signs with which his mind laboured. It is true, that 
retirement to which his high post led him, he never em- 
barking in designs that he thought foreign to it, gave 
him leisure to review and retouch the noblest body of 
sermons that, I hope I may be allowed to say, this nation 
or the world ever saw; which I mention the rather here, 
because they have been published since this book was 
first printed. 

His chief support, next to his own conscience, and his 



Xlvi PREFACE. 

confidence in God, was from our late blessed queen, who 
was incessantly employed in possessing her mind with the 
best schemes that were either laid before her by others, or 
suggested to her by her own royal heart, for correcting 
every thing that was amiss, and improving every thing 
that wanted finishing among us. And she was waiting for 
a happy peace to set about the executing them : she had 
arrived at such a superior degree of knowledge, and had 
such a force of reasoning with an irresistible sweetness of 
temper, that if our sins had not provoked God to blast all 
those hopes by her early admission to a better crown, we 
might, have seen a glorious face put on our church with 
relation to all its concerns. 

I am in some sort obliged to mention her, because I writ 
this book by her order, as well as by our primate's, as an 
attempt to prepare the scene to many noble designs, which 
may be opened at some time or other, if ever we are so 
happy as to endeavour to carry on our constitution to per- 
fection ; which, in our present distracted, if not desperate 
state, is far out of view, and therefore must be reserved to 
a more proper occasion. 

But to return to the sad view of our distractions at 
home : the bishops who find themselves so unjustly cen- 
sured, and their designs so unhappily obstructed, ought to 
humble themselves before God ; for it is meet to be said 
to him, I have borne chastisement; that which I know 
not, teach thou me. They ought to examine and consider 
how far their other sins may have provoked God to deny 
his blessing to their best endeavours ; they ought to ask 
themselves, what have they done to render them un- 
worthy to build up the house of God, and to repair its 
breaches : they ought to mourn in secret, both for their 
own sins, and for the sins of those who set themselves 



PREFACE. xlvii 

against them. They ought to search and try their own 
hearts, to find out if their pride or vanity, their love of 
ease and pleasure, or any other secret sin, is at root, and 
defeats all their labours ; they ought to pray more earn- 
estly both for themselves and their families, for their clergy 
and their people; and in so doing they may hope either to 
draw down a blessing from heaven on all that they set 
about, or at least that their prayers shall return into their 
own bosom. 

They ought also to cry mightily to God, that if they 
are to have a share in the fiery trial, they may be so 
strengthened in the inner man, that they may by no unbe- 
coming practices decline or avoid it ; but may rejoice if 
they are called to suffer for the name of Christ, and to 
seal that doctrine, which they have so long preached, with 
their blood ; and so may glorify him by their patient con- 
tinuance in well-doing", till they receive their crown. This 
will be, through the blessing of God, an effectual means, 
either to dissipate the clouds that seem to gather, and are 
ready to break out into a storm and horrible tempest, or 
to procure such a measure of Divine assistances to them in 
their sufferings, as may make their blood a seed for a no- 
ble spring of a better state of things among us. If with 
bishops so employing their time, many both of their clergy 
and laity did concur in lying in the dust before God, and 
turning to him with their whole hearts, we might hope to 
see better times than we have now in view. God has 
often delivered us, when we were near the last extremi- 
ties ; we have seen in our own time such a chain of kind 
providences happily interposing, when we saw no reason- 
able prospect, that we ought not to give all or lost, how 
dark soever the face of things may look, if we bring our- 



Xlviii PREFACE. 

selves to such a state, that we may have still a right to 
hope for the like protection. 

It cannot be denied but the appearance is formidable, 
when we see that prince who has engaged the longest and 
the deepest in the design of extirpating our religion, get 
out of all his troubles, and accomplish his vast designs, 
that seemed once to be so blasted that they could not be 
retrieved ; another scene is now opening to him that pro- 
mises all he can wish for, and must bring such an accu- 
mulation of power and treasure to him, that, humanly 
speaking, nothing can stand in his way. When a great al- 
liance is once quite dissolved, and when a word so often 
broken, and edicts so often violated, are trusted to and re- 
lied on ; such an unexpected turn will no doubt be con- 
strued as a reward from heaven for his zeal against heresy; 
and may very probably encourage him to finish what he 
has done at home, by bringing us under the same cala- 
mity. 

We know what engagement he lies under to a dying 
prince ; but we cannot know how far his bigotry may even 
outdo these, when he finds himself at the height of power 
and wealth that he is almost possessed of : promises 
and oaths can work but feebly on one so accustomed to 
break through them. 

When not only dispensations, but solicitations from 
Rome, with the practices of a confessor, the view of that 
glory that the work must bring him on earth, with the 
imaginary view of a more eternal w T eight of glory in hea- 
ven, concur ; what may not be apprehended from thence ? 
Chiefly when such of that religion, whose interests obliged 
them hitherto to join in preserving us, seeing these all 
abandoned and blasted, may either be at best indifferent 



PREFACE. xlix 

spectators, or the bigotry that surrounds them may be 
quickened, by a desire of revenging what they will call the 
giving them up, to concur in completing our ruin ; which 
in such a state of things cannot reasonably be thought to 
be far from us. Besides, if an avowed departing from the 
sacred ties of treaties and alliances is once openly practised, 
it may prove a fatal precedent. Such maxims are catching 
and contagious. The woe denounced by the prophet against 
those that deal treacherously when they are not dealt 
treacherously with, that when they shall make an end to 
deal treacherously they shall be dealt treacherously with, 
may come heavily, with a face of retribution, and without 
pity. 

Upon the whole matter, that I may bring this discourse 
to a conclusion ; as our disunion does not only weaken 
us, but diverts us from that which ought to be our main 
concern, to the unhappy consequences that follow formed 
parties ; so if we will not take warning from our Saviour's 
words, " That a city or kingdom divided against itself 
cannot stand, but must come to an end ;" we have reason 
to apprehend that such a breach, even without the advan- 
tage that an enemy may make of it, will be fatal; while, 
by our devouring one another, we may come to be con- 
sumed of one another : but how much more certain will 
this be, if we have a watchful and powerful enemy so near 
us, to whom we may justly apply the character given 
of the evil spirit, that he " goes about as a roaring lion, 
seeking whom he may devour." But even our union, 
though it may fortify us in the methods of human policy, 
yet it will not signify much, unless we do unite in order 
to our applying ourselves to the great duties of our pro- 
fession, so as to secure the favour and protection of Hea- 
ven. We ought not to hope that if we continue still in 

F 



1 PREFACE. 

our sins, and in our security, saying with the Jews, The 
temple of the Lord ! the temple of the Lord ! or in the mo- 
dern style, The church ! the church 1 we shall not at last 
fall under the severest of all judgments, denounced by St. 
Paul against the unbelieving Jews, in the words of Isaiah : 
" Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and 
shall not understand) and seeing ye shall see, and shall 
not perceive ; for the heart of this people is waxed gross, 
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they 
closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with 
their ears, and understand with their hearts, and should be 
converted, and I should heal them," 

To avert all this, let us, the priests, and ministers of the 
Lord, weep before him, and say, " Spare thy people, O 
Lorol, and give not thy heritage to reproach, that the hea- 
then (or idolaters) should rule over them. Wherefore 
should they say among the people, Where is their God," 
where is their Church, where is their Reformation ? In 
these exercises I desire to employ many of my own hours ; 
and to these I invite all who have a true zeal for God and 
his Church. 

GIL. SARU1VL 
Salisbury, 15th of 

November, 1712. 



OF 

THE PASTORAL CARE. 



CHAP. I. 

OF THE DIGNITY OF SACRED EMPLOYMENTS, AND 

THE NAMES AND DESIGNATIONS GIVEN TO THEM 
IN SCRIPTURE. 

HOW low soever the esteem of the clergy may 
he sunk in a profane and corrupt age, and how 
much soever the errors and disorders of clergymen 
may have contributed to bring this, not only upon 
themselves, but upon others who deserve better, 
but are unhappy in being mixed with so much ill 
company : yet certainly, if we either consider the 
nature of things in themselves, or the value that 
is set on that profession, in the Scriptures, it will 
appear that it ought to be considered at another 
rate than it is. As much as the soul is better than 
the body, and as much as the purifying and per- 
fecting the soul is preferable to all those mechani- 
cal employments which relate to the body, and as 
much as eternity is more valuable than this short 
and transitory life ; so much does this employ- 
ment excel all others. 

f 2 



52 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

A clergyman, by his character and design of life, 
ought to be a man separated from the cares and 
concerns of this world, and dedicated to the study 
and meditation of divine matters : whose conver- 
sation ought to be a pattern for others ; a constant 
preaching to his people ; who ought to offer up the 
prayers of the people in their name, and as their 
mouth to God : who ought to be praying and in- 
terceding for them in secret, as well as officiating 
among them in public : who ought to be distribut- 
ing among them the bread of life, the word of God ; 
and to be dispensing among them the sacred rites, 
which are the badges, the union, and the supports 
of Christians. He ought to admonish, to reprove, 
and to comfort them, not only by his general doc- 
trine in his sermons, but from house to house ; that 
so he may do these things more home and effectu- 
ally than can be done from the pulpit. He is to 
watch over their souls, to keep them from error, 
and to alarm them out of their sins, by giving 
them warning of the judgments of God ; to visit 
the sick, and to prepare them for the judgment 
and life to come. 

This is the function of a clergyman; who, that 
he may perform all these duties with more advan- 
tage and better effect, ought to behave himself so 
well, that his own conversation may not only be 
without offence, but be so exemplary, that his peo- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 53 

pie may have reason to conclude, that he himself 
does firmly believe all those things which he pro- 
poses to them ; that he thinks himself bound to 
follow all those rules that he sets them ; and that 
they may see such a serious spirit of devotion in 
him, that from thence they may be induced to be- 
lieve, that his chief design among them is to do 
them good, and to save their souls ; which may 
prepare them so to esteem and love him, that they 
may not be prejudiced against any thing that he 
does and says in public, by any thing that they 
observe in himself in secret. He must also be em- 
ploying himself so well in his private studies, that 
from thence he may be furnished with such a va- 
riety of lively thoughts, divine meditations, and 
proper and noble expressions, as may enable him 
to discharge every part of his duty in such a man- 
* ner, as may raise not so much his own reputation, 
as-the credit of his function, and of the great mes- 
sage of reconciliation that is committed to his 
charge. Above all studies, he ought to apply him- 
self to understand the holy Scriptures aright; to 
have his memory well furnished that way, that so 
upon all occasions he may be able to enforce what 
he says out of them, and so be an able minister of 
the New Testament. 

This is in short the character of a true clergy- 
man, which is to be more fully opened and enlarged 
f3 



54 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

on in the following parts of this book. All this 
looks so great and so noble, that it does not appear 
necessary to raise it, or to insist on it more fully. 
Indeed it speaks its own dignity so sensibly, that 
none will dispute it but such as are open enemies 
to all religion in general, or to the Christian reli- 
gion in particular ; and yet even few of these are 
so entirely corrupted as not to wish that external 
order and policy were kept up among men, for re- 
straining the injustice and violence of unruly appe- 
tites and passions; which few, even of the tribe of 
the libertines, seem to desire to be let loose ; since 
the peace and safety of mankind require that 
the world be kept in method, and under some 
yoke. 

It will be more suitable to my design, to shew 
how well this character agrees with that which is 
laid down in the Scriptures concerning these of- 
fices. I shall begin first with the names, and then 
go on to the descriptions, and lastly proceed to the 
rules that we find in them. 

The name of deacon, that is now appropriated 
to the lowest office in the church, was, in the time 
that the New Testament was writ, used more 
promiscuously : for the apostles, the evangelists, 
and those whom the apostles sent to visit the 
churches, are all called by this name. Generally 
in all those places where the word minister is in 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 55 

our translation, it is deacon in the Greek, which 
signifies properly a servant, or one who labours 
for another. Such persons are dedicated to the 
immediate sendee of God, and are appropriated 
to the offices and duties of the church ; so this 
term both expresses the dignity and the labour of 
the employment. 

The next order carries now the name of presby- 
ter, or elder, which, though at first it was applied 
not only to bishops, but to the apostles themselves, 
yet in the succeeding ages it came to be appropri- 
ated to the second rank of the officers in the 
church. It either signifies a seniority of age, or 
of Christianity, in opposition to a neophite or no- 
vice, one newly converted to the faith ; but by 
common practice, as senate or senator, being at 
first given to counsellors by reason of their age, 
came afterwards to be a title appropriated to them, 
so the title presbyter (altered in pronunciation to 
be in English, priest) or elder, being a character 
of respect, denotes the dignity of those to whom it 
belongs : but since St. Paul divides this title 
either into two different ranks, or into two dif- 
ferent performances of the duties of the same 
rank, " those that rule well/' and " those that la- 
bour in word and doctrine* ;" this is a title that 

* 1 Tim. v, 17. 



56 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

speaks both the dignity and likewise the duty be- 
longing to this function. 

The title which is now by the custom of many 
ages given to the highest function in the church, 
of bishop, or inspector, and overseer, as it imports 
a dignity in him, as the chief of those who labour* 
so it does likewise express his obligation to care 
and diligence, both in observing and overseeing 
the whole flock, and more especially in inspecting 
the deportment and labours of his fellow- workmen, 
w r ho are subordinate to him in the constitution of 
the church, yet ought to be esteemed by him, in 
imitation of the apostles, his brethren, his fellow- 
labourers, and fellow-servants. Next to the names 
of the sacred functions, I shall consider the other 
designations and figures made use of to express 
them. 

The most common is that of pastor, or shepherd. 
It is to be remembered, that in the first simplicity 
of mankind for many ages, men looked after their 
own cattle, or employed their children in it ; and 
when they trusted that care to any other, it was 
no small sign of their confidence, according to 
what Jacob said to Laban. The care of a good 
shepherd was a figure then so well understood, 
that the prophet expresses God's care of his peo- 
ple, by this, of " his feeding them as a shepherd* 
carrying his lambs in his bosom, and gently lead- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 57 

ing them that were with young*." Christ also 
calls himself " the good shepherd, that knew his 
sheep, and did not, as a hireling, fly away when 
the wolf came, but laid down his life for his 
sheepf." This then being so often made use of in 
both Testaments, is an expression of the great 
trust committed to the clergy, which likewise sup- 
poses a great, a constant, and a tender care in 
looking to, in feeding or instructing, in watching 
over, and guarding the flock against errors and 
sins, and their being ready to offer themselves to 
the first fury of persecution. 

The title of stewards, or dispensers, which is the 
most honourable in a household, is also given to 
them. These assign to every one his due share, 
both of labour and of provision ; these watch over 
them, and have the care and order of the other 
servants assigned to them. So in this great family 
of which Christ is the headj, the stewards are not 
only in a post of great dignity, but also of much 
labour. They ought to be observing the rest of 
this household, that they may be faithful in the 
distribution, and so encourage, admonish, reprove, 
or censure, as there is occasion for it. 

They are also called ambassadors, and this upon 
the noblest and most desirable message ; for their 

* Isa. xl. 11. f John x. IK J 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2. 



58 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

business is to treat of peace between God and 
man' 1 ' : to them is given the word or doctrine of 
reconciliation; they are sent by Christ, and do 
speak in God's name, as if God did beseech men 
by them ; so do they in Christ's stead, who is the 
Mediator, press men to be reconciled to God — 
words of a very high sound, of great trust and 
dignity, but which import likewise great obliga- 
tions. An ambassador is very solicitous to main- 
tain the dignity of his character, and his master's 
honour, and chiefly to carry on that which is the 
main business that he is sent upon, which he is 
always contriving how to promote : so if the 
honour of this title affects us as it ought to do, 
with a just value for it, we ought at the same time 
to consider the obligations that accompany it, of 
living suitable to it, answering in some sort the 
dignity and majesty of the King of kings, that has 
committed it to us, and of labouring, with all pos- 
sible diligence, to effectuate the great design on 
which we are sent, the reconciling sinners to 
God : the work having in itself a proportion to the 
dignity of him, that employs us in it. 

Another, and yet a more glorious title, is that of 
angels, who, as they are of a pure and sublime 
nature, and are called a flaming firef, so they do 

* 2 Cor. v. 19, 20. f &ev. ii. 3. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 59 

always behold the face of our heavenly Father, and 
ever do his will* ; and are also ministering spirits, 
sent forth to minister to them that are appointed 
to be the heirs of salvation. This title is given to 
bishops and pastors ; and as if that was not 
enough, they are in one place called not only the 
messengers or angels of the churches, but also the 
glory of Christ. The natural importance of this 
is, that men to whom this title is applied ought to 
imitate those heavenly powers, in the elevation of 
their souls, to contemplate the works and glory of 
God, and in their constant doing his will, more 
particularly in ministering to the souls of those for 
whom the great Angel of the covenant made him- 
self a sacrifice. 

I do not among these titles reckon those of rulers 
or governors!, that are also given to bishops, be- 
cause they seem to be but another name for 
bishops, whose inspection was a rule and govern- 
ment, and so carried in its signification both autho- 
rity and labour. To these designations, that carry 
in them characters of honour, but of honour joined 
to labour ; and for the sake of which the honour 
was due, according to that, " esteem them very 
highly for their work's sake :" I shall add some 
other designations, that in their significations carry 

* 2 Cor. viii. 23. f Heb. ii. 7. 



60 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

only labour without honour, being borrowed from 
labours that are hard, but no way honourable. 

They are often called watchmen*, who used to 
stand on high towers, and were to give the alarm 
as they saw occasion for it: these men were 
obliged to a constant attendance to watch, in the 
night as well as in the day : so all this being ap- 
plied to the clergy, imports that they ought to be 
upon their watch-tower, observing what dangers 
their people are exposed to, either by their sins, 
which provoke the judgments of God, or by the 
designs of their enemies. They ought not, by a 
false respect, to suffer them to sleep and perish 
in their sins ; but must denounce the judgments 
of God to them, and rather incur their displeasure 
by their freedom, than suffer them to perish in 
their security. 

St. Paul does also call churchmen by the name 
of builders, and gives to the apostles the title of 
master-buildersf : this imports both hard and pain- 
ful labour, and likewise great care and exactness 
in it, for want of which the building will be not 
only exposed to the injuries of weather, but will 
quickly tumble down; and it gives us to under- 
stand, that those who carry this title ought to 
study well the great rule by which they must 

* Ezek. iii. 17, t 1 Cor. iii. 10. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 61 

carry on the interest of religion, that so they may 
•' build up their people in their most holy faith, " 
so as to be "a building fitly framed together." 

They are also called labourers in God's hus- 
bandry*, labourers in his vineyard, and harvestf, 
who are to sow, plant, and water, and to cultivate 
the soil of the church J. This imports a continual 
return of daily and hard labour, which requires 
both pain and diligence [|. They are also called 
soldiers, men that did war and fight against the 
powers of darkness§. The fatigue, the dangers, 
and difficulties of that state of life, are so well 
understood, that no application is necessary to 
make them more sensible. 

And thus, by a particular enumeration of either 
the more special names of these offices, such as 
deacon, priest and bishop, ruler and governor, or 
of the designations given to them, of shepherds, or 
pastors, stewards, ambassadors, and angels, it ap- 
pears that there is a great dignity belonging to 
them, but a dignity which must carry labour with 
it, as that for which the honour is due. The other 
titles, of watchmen, builders, labourers, and sol- 
diers, import also that they are to decline no part 
of their duty, for the labour that is in it, the 

* 1 Cor. iii. 9. f Matt. xx. 1. t Matt. ix. 37, 38. 
H 1 Cor. iii. 6. § Philip, ii. 25. 

G 



62 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

dangers that may follow, or the seeming meanness 
that may be in it, since we have for this so great 
a rule and pattern set us by our Saviour, who has 
given us this character of himself, and in that a 
rule to all that pretend to come after him. "The 
Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but 
to minister *." This was said upon the proud con- 
tentions that had been among his disciples, who 
should be the greatest ; two of them presuming 
upon their near relation to him, and pretending to 
the first dignity in his kingdom t upon that he 
gave them to understand that the dignities of his 
kingdom were not to be of the same nature with 
those that were in the world. It was not rule or 
empire to which they were to pretend : " the dis- 
ciple was not to be above his Lord :" and he that 
humbled himself to the last and lowest in his ser- 
vice, was by so doing really the first. 

He himself descended to the " washing his dis- 
ciples' feetf," which he proposeth to their imita- 
tion ; and that came in latter ages to be taken up 
by princes, and acted by them in pageantry : but 
the plain account of that action is, that it was a 
prophetical emblem ; of which sort we find several 
instances, both in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel ; 
the prophet doing somewhat that had a mystical 

* Matth. xx. 28. + John, xiii. 5. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 63 

signification in it, relating to the subject of his 
prophecy : so that our Saviour's washing the feet 
of his disciples imported the humility, and the de- 
scending to the meanest offices of charity, which 
he recommended to his followers, particularly to 
those whom he appointed to preach his Gospel to 
the world. 



CHAP. IL 

OF THE RULES SET DOWN IN SCRIPTURE FOR 
THOSE THAT MINISTER IN HOLY THINGS; AND 
OF THE CORRUPTIONS THAT ARE SET FORTH 
IN THEM. 

I intend to write with all possible simplicity 
without the affectations of a strictness of method : 
and therefore I will give one full view of this 
whole matter, without any other order than as it 
lies in the Scriptures ; and will lay both the rules 
and the reproofs that are in them together, as 
things that give light to one another. In the law 
of Moses* we find many very particular rules 
given for the washing and consecration of the 
priests and Levites, chiefly of the holy priest. 

* Levit. viii. 
g 2 



64 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

The whole tribe of Levi was sanctified, and sepa- 
rated from the common labours either of war or 
tillage ; and though they were but one in twelve, 
yet a tenth of all was appointed for them : they 
were also to have a large share of another tenth ; 
that so they might be not only delivered from all 
cares by that large provision that was made for 
them, but might be able to relieve the necessities 
of the widows and fatherless, the poor and the 
strangers that sojourned among them, and by their 
bounty and charity be possessed both of the love 
and esteem of the people. They were " holy to 
the Lord ;" they were said to be sanctified or 
dedicated to God : and the head of their order 
carried on his mitre this inscription, " Holiness to 
the Lord." The many washings that they were 
often to use, chiefly in doing their functions, car- 
ried this signification in them, that they were 
appropriated to God, and that they were under 
very strict obligations to a high degree of purity. 
They might not so much as mourn for their dead 
relations, to shew how far they ought to rise 
above all the concerns of flesh and blood*, and 
even the most excusable passions of human nature. 
But, above all things, these rules taught them, 
with what exactness, decency, and purity they 

* Levit. xxi. 1. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 65 

ought to perform those offices that belonged to 
their functions* ; and therefore, when Aaron's two 
sons, Nadab and Abihu, transgressed the law that 
God had given, " fire came out from the Lord, and 
devoured themf ;" and the reason given for it car- 
ries in it a perpetual rule : ** I will be sanctified in 
all them that draw near to me, and before all the 
people I will be glorifiedj :" which import, that 
such as minister in holy things ought to behave 
themselves so, that God's name may be glorified 
by their means : otherwise, that God will glorify 
himself by his severe judgments on them : a signal 
instance of which we do also find in Eli's two sons||, 
whose impieties and defilements, as they made the 
people to abhor the offering of the Lord, so they 
also drew down, not only heavy judgments on 
themselves, but on the whole house of Eli, and in- 
deed on the whole nation. 

But besides the attendance which the priests and 
Levites were bound to give at the temple, and on 
the public service there, they were likewise obliged 
to study the law, to give the people warning out of 
it, to instruct them in it, and to conduct them, and 
watch over them : and for this reason they had 
cities assigned them in all the corners of the land. 

* Levit. xxii. 3, 4. f Levit. x. 1. % Ver. 3. 

|| 1 Sam. ii. iii. 

g3 



66 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

that so they might both more easily observe the 
manners of the people, and that the people might 
more easily have recourse to them. Now when 
that nation became corrupted both by idolatry and 
immorality, God raised up prophets to be extraor- 
dinary monitors to them, to declare to them their 
sins, and to denounce those judgments which were 
coming upon them, because of them : we find the 
silence, the ignorance, and the corruption of their 
pastors, their shepherds, and their watchmen, is a 
main article of their charge ; so Isaiah tells them, 
that their " watchmen were blind, ignorant, dumb 
dogs, that could not bark; sleeping, lying down, 
and loving to slumber* :" yet these careless watch- 
men were covetous and insatiable : " they were 
greedy dogs, which could never have enough ; shep- 
herds they were that could not understand ;" but 
how remiss soever they might be in God's work, 
they were careful enough of their own : " they all 
looked to their own way, every one to his own 
gain from his quarter." They were, no doubt, ex- 
act in levying their tithes and first-fruits, how little 
soever they might do for them, bating their bare 
attendance at the temple to officiate there ; so 
guilty they were of that reigning abuse, of think- 
ing they had done their duty, if they, either by 



* Is. lvi. 10. 






OF THE l'ASTORAL CAKB. 67 

themselves or by proxy, had performed their func- 
tions, without minding what was incumbent on 
them, as watchmen or shepherds. In opposition to 
such careless and corrupt guides, God promises to 
his people, " to set watchmen over them that 
should never hold their peace day or night." 

As the captivity drew nearer, we may easily 
conclude that the corruptions both of priest and 
people increased, which ripened them for the judg- 
ments of God, that were kept back by the reforma- 
tions which Hezekiah and Josiah had made : but at 
last all was so depraved, that though God sent two 
prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, to prepare them 
for that terrible calamity, yet this was only to save 
some few among them ; for the sins of the nation 
were grown to that height, that though Moses and 
Samuel, Noah, Job, and Daniel*, had been then 
alive to intercede for them, yet God declared that 
he would not hear them, nor spare the nation for 
their sakes ; so that even such mighty intercessors 
could only save their own souls. In this deplora- 
ble state we shall find that their priests and pastors 
had their large share. " The priests said not, 
Where is the Lord ? They that handled the law 
knew me not, the pastors also transgressed against 
mef ;" and their corruption went so far, that they 

* Jer. v. 2. Ezek. xiv. 14. t Jer. ii. 8. 



es 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 



had not only false prophets to support them, but 
the people, who, how bad soever they may be 
themselves, do generally hate evil priests, grew to 
be pleased with it. " The prophets prophesy falsely ; 
and the priests bear rule by their means : and my 
people love to have it so ; from the prophet even 
to the priest, every one dealt falsely*." And upon 
that a " woe is denounced against the pastors that 
destroyed and scattered the sheep of God's pas- 
turef." They by their office ought to have fed the 
people ; but instead of that, " they had scattered 
the flock, and driven them . away, and had not 
visited them. Both prophet and priest were pro- 
fane ; their wickedness was found even in the 
house of God." In opposition to all which, God 
promises by the prophet, that he would set " shep- 
herds over them, that should feed them ; so that 
the people should have no more reason to be afraid 
of their pastors^," or of being misled by them ; and 
he promised, upon their return from the captivity, 
to " give them pastors according to his own heart, 
who should feed them with knowledge and under- 
standing||." 

In Ezekiel we find the solemn and severe charge 
given to watchmen twice repeated ; that they 

* Jer. v. 31. vi. 13. f Jer. xxiii. 1. 

J Jer. xxiii. 4. || Jer. iii. 15. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 69 

I ' ought to warn the wicked from his wickedness ; 
otherwise, though he should indeed die in his sin, 
God would require his blood at the watchman's 
hand : but if he gave warning, he had by so doing 
delivered his own soul*." In that prophecy we 
have the guilt of the priests set forth very hein- 
ously. " Her priests have violated my law, and 
profaned my holy things ; they have put no differ- 
ence between the holy and profane, the clean and 
the unclean ; and have hid their eyes from my 
sabbathsf ;" the effect of which was, that " God 
was profaned among them." This is more fully 
prosecuted in the xxxivth chap, which is all ad- 
dressed to the shepherds of Israel : " Woe be to 
the shepherds of Israel, that do feed themselves ! 
should not the shepherds feed the flockj ? Ye eat 
the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool; ye kill 
them that are fed, but ye feed not the flock||." Then 
follows an enumeration of the several sorts of trou- 
bles that the people were in, under the figure of a 
flock, to shew how they had neglected their duty, 
in all the parts and instances of it : and had trusted 
to their authority, which they had abused to ty- 
ranny and violence : " The diseased have ye not 
strengthened, neither have ye healed that which 



* Ezek. iii. 17. xxxiii. 7. f Chap. xxii. 26. 

X Chap, xxxiv. 2. }| Ver. 3. 



70 OF THE PASTORAL CARE 

was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was 
broken, neither have ye brought again that which 
was driven away, neither have ye sought that 
which was lost ; but with force and with cruelty 
have ye ruled them* :" upon which follows a ter- 
rible expostulation, and denunciation of judgments 
against them : "I am against the shepherds, saith 
the Lord : I will require my flock at their hands, 
and cause them to cease from feeding the flock ; 
neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any 
moref." And in the xlivth chap, of that prophecy, 
one rule is given, which was set up in the primi- 
tive church as an unalterable maxim, that such 
priests as had been guilty of idolatry should not 
do the office of a priest any more, nor come near 
to any of the holy things, or enter within the 
sanctuary, but were still to bear their shame ; they 
might minister in some inferior services, such as 
keeping the gates, or slaying the sacrifice; but 
they were still to bear their iniquity. 

I have passed over all that occurs in these pro- 
phets which relates to the false prophets, because 
I 'will bring nothing into this discourse that relates 
to sins of another order and nature. In Daniel we 
have a noble expression of the value of such as 
" turn men to righteousness; that they shall shine 

* Ezek. xxxiv. 4. f Ver. 10, 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 71 

as the stars for ever and ever*." In Hosea we find 
among the sins and calamities of that time, this 
reckoned as a main cause of that horrid corruption 
under which they had fallen; there "being no 
truth, no mercy, nor knowledge of God in the 
land ; which was defiled by swearing, lying, killing, 
stealing, and committing adultery. My people are 
destroyed for lack of knowledgef." To which is 
added: "Because thou hast rejected knowledge" 
(or the instructing the people), " I will also reject 
thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me ; seeing thou 
hast forgot the law of thy God, I w r ill also forget 
thy children." That corrupt race of priests at- 
tended still upon the temple, and offered up the 
sin-offering, and feasted upon their portion ; which 
is wrong rendered, " They eat up the sin of my 
people ;" for sin stands there, as in the law of 
Moses, for sin-offering : because of the advantage 
this brought them, they were glad at the abound- 
ing of sin ; which is expressed by their setting their 
heart, or lifting up their soul to their iniquity : 
the conclusion of which is, that they "should be 
given up for a very heavy curse, of like priests 
like people." In Joel w r e find the duty of the 
priests and ministers of the Lord set forth in times 
of great and approaching calamities, thus : They 

* Dan. xii. 3. f Hosea iv. 1, 2, 6. 



72 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

ought to be intercessors for the people, and "to 
weep between the porch and the altar, and say, 
Spare thy people, and give not thine heritage to 
reproach, that the heathen (strangers and idolaters) 
should rule over them : wherefore should they say 
among the people, Where is their God* I" There 
is in Micah a very black character of a depraved 
priesthood : " Their priests teach for hire, and their 
prophets divine for moneyf." 

These were the forerunners of the destruction of 
that nation : but though it might be expected that 
the captivity should have purged them from their 
dross, as it did indeed free them from all inclina- 
tions to idolatry, yet other corruptions had a deeper 
root. We find in Zechariah a curse against the 
idol shepherd, who resembled the true shepherd 
as an idol does the original ; but he was without 
sense and life : " Woe be to the idol shepherd that 
leaveth the flockj." The curse is figuratively ex- 
pressed ; * ' The sword shall be upon his arm, and 
his right eye (the things that he valued most) : his 
arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall 
be utterly darkened." But this is more copiously 
set out by Malachi, in an address made to the 
priests : " And now, O ye priests, this command- 
ment is for you : If you will not hear, and if you 



Joel, ii. 17. f Chap. iii. 11. J Zech. xi. 17. 






OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 73 

will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my 
name, I will even send a curse upon you, and I 
will curse your blessings ; yea I have cursed them 
already, because ye do not lay it to heart*." Then 
the first covenant with the tribe of Levi is set 
forth : u My covenant was with him, of life and 
peace : The law of truth was in his mouth, and 
iniquity was not found in his lips : He walked with 
me in peace and equity, and did turn many from 
their iniquity : For the priest's lips should preserve 
knowledge, and they should seek the law at his 
mouth ; for he is the messenger of the Lord of 
Hosts." All this sets forth the state of a pure and 
holy priesthood. But then follow terrible words : 
" But ye are departed out of the way, ye have 
caused many to stumble at the law : Ye have cor- 
rupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of 
Hosts. Therefore have I also made you contempt- 
ible and base before all the people ; according as 
ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial 
in the law." Their ill example made many 
loathe both their law and their religion. They 
had corrupted their institution, and studied by a 
gross partiality to bring the people to be exact 
in those parts of the law in which their wealth 
or their authority was concerned ; while they 

* Mai. ii. 2. 
H 



74 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

neglected the more essential and indispensable 
duties. 

Thus far have I gone over the most important 
places that have occurred to me in the Old Testa- 
ment relating to this matter; upon all which I 
will only add one remark ; that though some ex- 
ception might be made to those expressions that 
import the dignity and sanctification of those who 
were then consecrated to the holy functions, as 
parts of that instituted religion, which had its 
period by the coming of Christ ; yet such passages 
as relate to moral duties, and to the obligations 
that arise out of natural religion, have certainly a 
more binding force, and ought to be understood 
and explained in a more elevated and sublime 
sense, under the new dispensation which is inter- 
nal and spiritual ; compared to which, the old is 
called the letter and the flesh. Therefore the ob- 
ligations of the priests, under the Christian reli- 
gion, to a holy strictness of life and conversation, 
to a diligent attendance on their flock, and for in- 
structing and watching over them, must all be as 
much higher, and more binding, as this new cove- 
nant excels the old one. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 75 



CHAP. III. 

PASSAGES OUT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, RE- 
LATING TO THE SAME MATTER. 

This general consideration receives a vast im- 
provement from the great example that the Author 
of our religion, " the great Bishop and Shepherd 
of our souls," has set us ; who went about, ever 
doing good; to whom, " it was as his meat and 
drink to do the will of his Father that sent him : 
he was the good Shepherd, that knew his sheep, 
and laid down his life for them." And since he 
set such a value on the souls of that flock which 
he hath redeemed, and purchased with his own 
blood, certainly those to whom he has committed 
that work of reconciliation which stood himself so 
dear, ought to consider themselves under very- 
strict obligations, by that charge of which they 
must give a severe account at the great day, in 
which the blood of all those who have perished 
through their neglect and default shall be required 
at their hands. Yet, because I will not aggravate 
this argument unreasonably, I will make no use 
of those passages which relate immediately to the 
postles: for their function being extraordinary, as 
^ere also the assistances that were given them for 
h 2 



76 OF THE PASTOKAL CARE. 

the discharge of it, I will urge nothing that belongs 
properly to their mission and duty. 

In the character that the Gospel gives of the 
priests and Pharisees of that time, we may see a 
just and true idea of the corruptions into which a 
bad clergy is apt to fall. They studied to engross 
the knowledge of the law to themselves, and to 
keep the people in ignorance, and in a blind de- 
pendence upon them : they were zealous in lesser 
matters, but neglected the great things of the law ; 
they put on an outward appearance of strictness, 
but under that there was much rottenness : they 
studied to make proselytes to their religion, but 
they had so depraved it, that they became thereby 
worse men than before : they made great shews 
of devotion, of praying, and fasting much, and 
giving alms ; but all this was to be seen of men, 
and by it they devoured the estates of poor and 
simple people : they were very strict in observing 
the traditions and customs of their fathers, and of 
every thing that contributed to their own autho- 
rity or advantage ; but by so doing they made 
void the law of God : in a word, they had no true 
worth in themselves, and hated such as had it. 
They were proud and spiteful, false and cruel ; 
and made use of the credit they w T ere in with the 
people, by their complying with them in their 
vices, and flattering them with false hopes, to set 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 77 

them on to destroy all those who discovered their 
corruptions, and whose real and shining worth 
made their counterfeit shew of it the more conspi- 
cuous and odious. In this short view of those enor- 
mous disorders which then reigned amongst them, 
we have a full picture of the corrupt state of bad 
priests in all ages and religions, with this only dif- 
ference, that the priests in our Saviour's time were 
more careful and exact in the external and visible 
parts of their conversation, than they have been in 
other times, in which they have thrown off the 
very decencies of a grave and sober deportment. 

But now to go on with the characters and rules 
that we find in the New Testament. Our Saviour, 
as he compared the work of the Gospel in many 
parables to a field and harvest, so he calls those 
whom his Father was to send, " the labourers in 
that harvest;" and he left a direction to all his 
followers, to "pray to his Father that he would 
send labourers into his harvest* :" out of which 
both the vocation and Divine mission of the clergy, 
and the prayers of the church to God for it, that 
are among us fixed to the ember-weeks, have been 
gathered by many pious writers. In the warnings 
that our Saviour gives to prepare for his second 
coming, we find the characters of good and bad 

* Matt. ix. 38. 

H 3 



78 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

clergymen stated, in opposition to one another, 
under the figure of stewards : The good are both, 
" wise and faithful ; they wait for his coming/' 
and in the mean while are " dividing to every one 
of their fellow-servants his portion to eat in due 
season* :" that is, their proportion both of the doc- 
trine and mysteries of the Gospel, according to 
their several capacities and necessities : but the bad 
stewards are those w T ho put the evil day far from 
them, and " say in their heart, The Lord delay eth 
his coming/' upon which " they eat, drink, and are 
drunken :" they indulge their sensual appetites even 
to a scandalous excess ; and as for their fellow-ser- 
vants, instead of feeding, of instructing, or watch- 
ing over them, they beat them, they exercise a 
violent and tyrannical authority over them. Their 
state in the next world is represented as different 
as their behaviour in this was : the one shall be 
exalted from being a steward to be a ruler over 
the household, to be a "king and a priest for 
ever unto God ;" whereas the other shall be cut 
asunder, and shall have his portion with unbe- 
lievers. 

The xth of St. John is the place which both fa- 
thers and more modern writers have chiefly made 
use of to shew the difference between good and 

* Luke xii. 42. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 79 

bad pastors. The good shepherds enter by the 
door ; and Christ is this door by whom they must 
enter; that is, from whom they must have their 
vocation and mission : but the thief and robber, 
who comes to kill, steal, and destroy, climbeth 
up some other way ; whatever he may do in the 
ritual way for form's sake, he has in his heart no 
regard to Jesus Christ, to the honour of his per- 
son, the edification of his church, or the salva- 
tion of souls : he intends only to raise and en- 
rich himself; and so he compasses that, he cares 
not how many souls perish by his means, or 
through his neglect. " The good shepherd knows 
his sheep so well, that he can call them by name, 
and lead them out, and they hear his voice ; but 
the hireling careth not for the sheep," he is a 
stranger to them, they know not his voice, and will 
not follow him. This is urged by all who have 
pressed the obligation of residence, and of the per- 
sonal labours of the clergy, as a plain Divine and 
indispensable precept : and even in the council of 
Trent, though by the practices of the court of 
Rome it was diverted from declaring residence to 
be of Divine right, the decree that was made to 
enforce it urges this place to shew the obligation 
to it. The good shepherd feeds the flock, and looks 
for pasture for them, and is ready to give his life 
for the sheep ; but the bad shepherd is represented 



80 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 



as a hireling, that careth not for the flock, that 
sees the wolf coming, and upon that leaveth the 
sheep and fleeth." This is, it is true, a figure, 
and therefore I know it is thought an ill way of 
reasoning to build too much upon figurative dis- 
courses ; yet, on the other hand, our Saviour hav- 
ing delivered so great a part of his doctrine in 
parables, we ought at least to consider the main 
scope of a parable ; and may well build upon that, 
though every particular circumstance in it cannot 
bear an argument. 

I shall add but one passage more from the Gos- 
pels, which is much made use of by all that have 
writ of this matter. When our Saviour confirmed 
St. Peter in his apostleship, from which he had 
fallen by his denying of him, as in the charge 
which he thrice repeated of " feeding his lambs and 
his sheep*," he pursues still the figure of a shep- 
herd ; so the question that he asked preparatory to 
it, was, " Simon, lovest thou me more than these ?" 
from which they justly gather, that the love of 
God, a zeal for his honour, and a preferring of that 
to all other things whatsoever, is a necessary and 
indispensable qualification for that holy employ- 
ment ; which distinguishes the true shepherd from 
the hireling, and by which only he can be both 

* John xxi. 15. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 81 

animated and fortified to go through with the la- 
bours and difficulties, as well as the dangers and 
sufferings, which may accompany it. 

When St. Paul was leaving his last charge with 
the bishops that met him at Ephesus, he still makes 
use of the same metaphor of shepherd, in those 
often cited words, " Take heed to yourselves, and 
to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath 
made you bishops or overseers, to feed the church 
of God, which he hath purchased with his own 
blood*". The words are solemn, and the conside- 
ration enforcing them is a mighty one ; they import 
the obligations of the clergy, both to an exactness 
in their own deportment, and to earnest and con- 
stant labours, in imitation of the apostle, who dur- 
ing the three years of his stay among them, had been 
" serving God with all humility of mind, with many 
tears and temptations! ; and had not ceased to warn 
every one both night and day, with tears ; and had 
taught them publicly, and from house to house:J:." 
Upon which he leaves them, calling them all to 
witness that "he was pure from the blood of all 
men||." There has been great disputing concern- 
ing the persons to whom these words were ad- 
dressed ; but if all parties had studied more to fol- 
low the example here proposed, and the charge 

* Acts xx. 28. t Ver. 19. 

X Ver. 20. || Ver. 26. 



82 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

that is here given, which are plain and easy to be 
understood, than to be contending about things 
that are more doubtful, the good lives and the 
faithful labours of apostolical bishops would have 
contributed more, both to the edifying and healing 
of the church, than all their arguments or reason- 
ings will ever be able to do. 

St. Paul, reckoning up to the Romans the seve- 
ral obligations of Christians of all ranks to assiduity 
and diligence in their callings and labours, among 
others he numbers these: " Ministers, let us wait 
on our ministering ; or he that teacheth, on teach- 
ing ; he that ruleth, with diligence*." In his epis* 
tie to the Corinthians, as he states the dignity of 
the clergy in this, that they ought to be accounted 
of " as the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the 
mysteries of Godf;" he adds, " that it is required 
in stewards that a man be found faithful." In that 
epistle he sets down that perpetual law, which is 
the foundation of all the provision that has been 
made for the clergy, " That the Lord hath ordain- 
ed, that they which preach the gospel should live of 
the gospel]:." But if, upon that, the laity have 
looked on themselves as bound to appoint so plen- 
tiful a supply, that the clergy might have whereon 
to live at their ease and in abundance, then cer- 

* Rom. xii. 7. t 1 Cor. iv. 1. X 1 Cor. ix. 14. 



OF THE TASTORAL CARE. 83 

tainly this was intended, that they, being freed 
from the troubles and cares of this world, might 
attend continually " on the ministry of the word of 
God, and on prayer*." Those w T ho do that work 
negligently, provoke the laity to repent of their 
bounty, and to defraud them of it. For certainly 
there are no such enemies to the patrimony and 
rights of the church, as those who " eat the fat, 
but do not preach the gospel, nor feed the flock." 
Happy, on the other hand, are they to whom that 
character, which the apostle assumes to himself 
and to Timothy, does belong: " Therefore, seeing 
we have received this ministry, as we have received 
mercy, we faint not ; but have renounced the hid- 
den things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, 
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but, by 
manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves 
to every man's conscience in the sight of Godf." 
In the epistle to the Ephesians, we have the ends 
of the institution of all the ranks of clergymen set 
forth in these words : " He gave some, apostles ; 
and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and 
some pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of 
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the 
edifying the body of Christ : till w T e all come in the 
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son 

* Acts, vi. 4. f 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2. 



84 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of 
the stature of the fulness of Christ*." In these 
words we see something that is so vast and noble, 
so far above those slight and poor performances in 
which the far greater part do too easily satisfy 
themselves, that in charity to them we ought to 
suppose that they have not reflected sufficiently on 
the importance of them; otherwise they would 
have in some sort proportioned their labours to 
those great designs for which they are ordained ; 
and would remember the charge given to the Colos- 
sians to say to Archippus, who it seems was remiss 
in the discharge of his duty, " Take heed to the 
ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, 
that thou fulfil it.f" 

The epistles to Timothy and Titus are the foun- 
dation of all the canons of the church. In these 
we have the characters of bishops and deacons, as 
well as the duties belonging to those functions, so 
particularly set forth, that from thence alone every 
one who will weigh them well, may find sufficient 
instruction "how he ought to behave himself in 
the house of God." In these we see what patterns 
those of the clergy ought to "be in word (or doc- 
trine), in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in 
faith, and in purity; they ought to give attend- 

* Eph. iv. 11, 12, 13. f Col.iv 17. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 85 

ance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine* ;** 
that is, both to the instructing and exhorting of 
their people. " They ought not to neglect the 
gift that was given to them by the laying on of 
hands ; they ought to meditate on these things, to 
give themselves wholly to them, that so their pro- 
fiting may appear unto all, and to take heed to 
themselves and their doctrine, and to continue in 
them ; for in so doing they shall both save them- 
selves and those that hear them." Those that 
govern the church are more particularly charged, 
" before God, the Lord Jesus, and the holy angels, 
that they observe these things without preferring 
one before another, doing nothing by partiality t>" 
by domestic regards, the considerations of friend- 
ship, intercession, or importunity; and, "above 
all, that they lay hands suddenly on no man :" to 
which are added words of great terror, u neither 
be thou partaker of other men's sins ; keep thyself 
pure/' Which ought to make great impression 
on all those with whom the power of ordination is 
lodged, since they do plainly import, that such as 
do ordain any rashly, without due inquiry and a 
strict examination, entitle themselves to all the 
scandal they give, and become partners of their 
guilt ; which, if well considered, must needs make 

* I Tim. iv. 12—16. t Tim. v. 21, 22 

I 



86 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

all such as are not past feeling, use great care and 
caution in this sacred trust. Bishops are the de- 
positories of the faith, which they are to keep 
pure, and to hand down faithfully according to 
these words, " and the things which thou hast 
heard of me among many witnesses, the same 
commit thou to faithful men, who may be able to 
teach others also*." Upon this he prepares the 
bishops for difficulties, "to endure hardness, as a 
good soldier of Jesus Christ." And, according to 
that figure, since those that go to war do not carry 
unnecessary burthens with them, which may en- 
cumber or retard their march, he adds, " No man 
that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of 
this life, that he may please him who hath chosen 
him for a soldier." Upon this it is that all those 
canons, which have been made in so many ages of 
the church, against churchmen's meddling with 
secular affairs, have been founded; than which 
we find nothing more frequently provided against, 
both in the apostolical canons, in those of Antioch, 
in those made by the general council of Calcedon, 
and in divers of the councils of Carthage : but 
this abuse had too deep a root in the nature of 
man to be easily cured. St. Paul does also in 
this place carry on the metaphor, to express the 

* 2 Tim. ii. 2, 3, 4, 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 87 

earnestness and indefatigableness of clergymen's 
zeal; that as officers in an army were satisfied 
with nothing under victory, which brought them 
the honours of a triumph ; so we ought to fight, 
not only so as to earn our pay, but for mastery, 
to spoil and overcome the powers of darkness : 
yet even this " must be done lawfully*," not by 
deceiving the people with pious frauds, hoping 
that our good intentions will atone for our taking 
bad methods : war has its laws as well as peace, 
and those who manage this spiritual warfare ought 
to keep themselves within the instructions and 
commands that are given them. Then the apostle, 
changing the figure from the soldier to the work- 
man and steward, says, " Study to shew thyself 
approved unto God," (not to seek the vain ap- 
plause of men, but to prefer to all other things 
the witness of a good conscience, and that in sim- 
plicity and godly sincerity he may walk and labour 
as in the sight of God, " a workman that needeth 
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of 
truthf." This is, according to the figure of a 
steward, giving every one his due portion ; and a 
little after comes a noble admonition relating to 
the meekness of the clergy towards those that 
divide from them : ' ' The servant of the Lord must 

* 2 Tim. ii 5. f Ver. 15. 

i2 



88 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

not strive ; but be gentle to all men, apt to teach, 
patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose 
themselves ; if God peradventure will give them 
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth*/' 
This is the passage that was chiefly urged by our 
reformers against the persecuting that the Roman 
clergy did every where set on against them. The 
extent of it ought to be well considered, that so it 
may not be said, that we are only against persecu- 
tion when it lies on ourselves ; for if it is a good 
defence to some, it is as good to others; unless 
we own that we do not govern ourselves by that 
rule "of doing to others that which we would 
have others do to us." In the next chapter we 
find the right education of this bishop, and that 
which furnishes a clergyman to perform all the 
duties incumbent on him : " From a child thou 
hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to 
make thee wise unto salvation, through faith in 
Christ Jesusf." That is, the Old Testament well 
studied, by one that believed Jesus to be the Mes- 
sias, and that was led into it by that faith, did 
discover to man the great economy of God in the 
progress of the light, which he made to shine upon 
the world by degrees, unto the perfect day of the 
appearing of the Sun of righteousness : and to 

* Tim. ii. 24, 25, 26. f 2 Tim. iii. 15, 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 89 

this he adds a noble character of the inspired writ 
ings : " All scripture is given by inspiration of 
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction in righteousness; that 
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
nished unto all good works*." The apostle goes 
on, and gives Timothy the most solemn charge 
that can be set out in words ; which, if understood 
as belonging to all bishops, as the whole church 
of God has ever done, must be read by them with 
trembling. " I charge thee therefore before God, 
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the 
quick and dead at his appearing and his kingdom ; 
preach the word, be instant in season, out of sea- 
son ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffer- 
ing and doctrinef," (that is, with great gentleness 
in the manner, and clearness and strength in the 
matter of their instructions.) And a little after, 
"Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do 
the work of an evangelist, make full proof of (or 
fulfil) thy ministry {." And, as a consideration to 
enforce this the more, he tells what a noble and 
agreeable prospect he had in the view of his ap- 
proaching dissolution ; " the time of his departure 
drew nigh, he was ready to be offered up||," as a 

* 2 Tim. hi. 16, 17. f 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. 

t Ver. 5. || Ver. 6. 

i 3 



90 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

sacrifice for that faith which he had so zealously 
and so successfully preached. And here we have 
his two great preparatives for martyrdom ; the one 
was looking on his past life and labours ; ■ * I have 
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
have kept the faith*" : the other was looking for- 
ward to the reward, " that crown of righteousness 
which w r as laid up for him, which the Lord, the 
righteous judge, would give him at that day ; and 
not only to him, but also to all those that loved 
his appearingf ;" and certainly more especially to 
those who not only loved it themselves, but who 
laboured so as to dispose others also to love it. 
To all these considerations, though nothing needed 
to have been added, to one upon whom they made 
so strong an impression as they did upon Timo- 
thy, yet one comes after all, which ought to teach 
us to work out our salvation with fear and trem- 
bling, since St. Paul tells Timothy, that Demas, 
one of the companions of his labours, "had for- 
saken him ;" and that which prevailed over him 
was, "the love of this present world J." 

These are the rules and charges given by St. 
Paul to Timothy, and in him to all the bishops 
and pastors that were to come after him in the^ 
church. Some of these are again repeated in his 

* 2 Tim. iv. 7. + 2 Tim. iv. 8. J Ver. 10. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 91 

Epistle to Titus, where we have the characters set 
out, by which he was to prepare and examine 
those elders, or bishops, who were to rule the 
house of God ; that those being well chosen, they 
might be able, " by sound doctrine, both to exhort 
and convince the gainsay ers* ;" and that he might 
do his duty with the more advantage, he charges 
him to " shew himself in all things a pattern of 
good works ; in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, 
gravity, sincerity; and using such sound speech 
as could not be condemned ; that so those who 
are of the contrary party (the Judaizers, who were 
studying to corrupt the Christian religion, by mak- 
ing a medley of it and Judaism) might have no 
evil thing to say of himf ." And after a glorious 
but short abstract of the design of their holy re- 
ligion, he concludes that part of the epistle in 
these words : " these things speak and exhort, 
and rebuke with all authority." To which he 
adds a charge, that may seem more proper to be 
addressed to others than to himself; "Let no 
man despise theej." The same is likewise in his 
Epistle to Timothy, with this addition, " Let no 
man despise thy youth||." But these words do 
import, that it is in a bishop's own power to pro- 



Tit. i. 9. t Tit. ii. 7, 8. J Ver. 15. 

1 Tim. iv. 12. 



92 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

cure due esteem to himself, at least to prevent 
contempt ; since a holy and exemplary deport- 
ment, and faithful and constant labours, never fail 
to do that. In the conclusion of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews we find both the characters of those 
who had laboured among them, and had ruled 
them, but who were then dead ; and also of such 
as were yet alive. " Remember them who have 
the rule over you, who have spoken to you the 
word of God : whose faith follow, considering the 
end of their conversation*." They had both lived 
and died, as well as laboured, in such a manner, 
that the remembering of what had appeared in 
them, was an effectual means of persuading the 
Hebrews to be steady in the Christian religion. 
For certainly, though while a man lives, let him 
be ever so eminent, there is still room for illna- 
ture and jealously to misrepresent things, and to 
suspect that something lies hid under the fairest 
appearances, which may shew itself in due time ; 
all that goes off w T hen one has finished his course, 
so that all appears to be of a piece, and that he 
has died as he had lived ; then the argument from 
his conversation appears in its full strength, with- 
out any diminution. But the charge given with 
relation to those who then had the rule over them, 

* Heb. xiii. 7. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 93 

is no less remarkable ; " Obey them that have the 
rule over you, and submit yourselves ; for they 
watch for your souls, as they that must give ac- 
count, that they may do it with joy, and not with 
grief: for that is unprofitable for you*." Here 
obedience and submission are enjoined upon the 
account of their " rulers watching over them and 
for them ;" and therefore those who do not watch 
like men that know that they must give account 
of that trust, have no reason to expect these from 
their people. Of a piece with this is St. Paul's 
charge to the Thessalonians : "We beseech you 
to know (or to acknowledge) them which labour 
among you, and are over you in the Lord, and 
admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in 
love for their works' sake." Here both the sub- 
mission and esteem, as well as the acknowledg- 
ment that is due to the clergy, is said to be for 
their works' sake ; and therefore such as do not the 
work, and that do not labour and admonish their 
people, have no just claim to them. There is another 
expression in the second Epistle to the Thessalo- 
nians that is much urged by those who have written 
on this head, " That if any would not work he 
should not eat ;" which, if it is a rule binding all 
men, seems to lie much heavier on the clergy. 

* Heb. xiii. 17. 



94 OF THK PASTORAL CARE. 

I shall conclude all that I intend to bring out of 
the Scripture upon this argument, with St. Peter's 
charge to the elders of the churches to which he 
wrote, which is indeed so full, that though in the 
course of the New Testament it had not lain last, 
it deserved by the rules of method to be kept last, 
for the closing and enforcing all that has gone be- 
fore, and for giving it its full weight. St. Peter 
descends, Epist. 1. chap. v. ver. 1. to a level with 
them, calling himself no better than a "fellow- 
elder, and a witness of the suffering of Christ ; and 
also a partaker of the glory which was to be re- 
vealed. Feed the flock of God," says he, " which 
is among you, (these words will bear another ren- 
dering, as much as lieth in you) taking the over- 
sight thereof, not by constraint, (as forced to it by 
rules, canons, or laws) but willingly ; not for filthy 
lucre, (for though God has ordained that such as 
preach the gospel should live of the gospel, yet 
those who propose that to themselves as the chief 
motive in entering into holy orders, are hereby 
severely condemned) but of a ready mind, neither 
as being lords over God's heritage, (or not using a 
despotic authority over their several lots or divi- 
sions) but being examples to the flock, not tyran- 
nizing it over their people ; but acquiring their 
authority chiefly by their own exemplary conversa- 
tion. The conclusion of the charge is suitable to 



, 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 95 



the solemnity of it, in these words ; and " when the 
chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall likewise re- 
ceive a crown of glory, that fadeth not away." 

With this I make an end of citations from Scrip- 
ture. I think it is as plain as words can make any 
thing, that such as are dedicated to the service of 
God and of Ins church, ought to labour constantly 
and faithfully, and that in their own persons ; for 
it is not possible to express a personal obligation in 
terms that are both more strict and more solemn 
than these are which have been cited ; and all the 
returns of obedience and submission, of esteem and 
support, being declared to be due to them on the 
account of their watching over and feeding the 
flock of God, those who pretend to these, without 
considering themselves as under the other obliga- 
tions, are guilty of the worst sort of sacrilege, in 
devouring the things that are sacred, without doing 
those duties for which these are due ; and what 
right soever the law of the land ma}' give them to 
them, yet certainly, according to the divine law, 
those who do not wait " at the altar, ought not to 
be partakers with the altar; those who do not mi- 
nister about holy things, ought not to live of the 
things of the temple ; nor ought those who do not 
preach the gospel, live of the gospel*.' ' If I had a 

* 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. 



96 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

mind to make a great shew of reading, or to tri- 
umph in my argument with the pomp of quota- 
tions, it were very easy to bring a cloud of wit- 
nesses to confirm the application that I made of 
these passages of scripture. Indeed all who have 
either written commentaries on the Scriptures, 
ancient and modern, or have left homilies on these 
subjects, have pressed this matter so much, that 
every one that has made any progress in ecclesias- 
tical learning, must know that one might soon stuff 
a great many pages with abundance of quotations 
out of the authors both of the best and of the worst 
ages of the church. Not only the fathers, but even 
the schoolmen, and which is more, the canonists 
have carried this matter very high, and have even 
delivered it as a maxim, that all dispensations that 
are procured upon undue pretences, the chief of 
which they reckon the giving a man an easy and 
large subsistence, are null and void of themselves ; 
and conclude, that how strong soever they may be 
in law, yet they are nothing in conscience, and 
that they do not free a man from his obligations to 
residence and labour ; and they do generally con- 
clude, that he who upon a dispensation, which has 
been obtained upon carnal accounts, such as birth, 
rank, or great abilities, (and qualifications are not 
yet so good as these) does not reside, is bound in 
conscience to restore the fruits of a benefice which 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 97 

he has thus enjoyed with a bad conscience, with- 
out performing the duty belonging to it in his own 
person. But though it were very easy to bring 
out a great deal to this purpose, I will go no 
further at present upon this head; the words of 
God seem to be so express and positive, that such 
as do not yield to so indisputable an authority, 
will be little moved by all that can be brought out 
of authors of a lower form, against whom it will 
be easy to muster up many exceptions, if they will 
not be determined by so many of the oracles of 
the living God. 



CHAP IV. 



OF THE SENSE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH IN 
THIS MATTER. 

I will not enter here into any historical account 
of the discipline of the church during the first and 
best ages of Christianity. It is the glory of the 
church, that in her disputes on both hands, as well 
with those of the church of Rome, as with those 
that separate from her, she has both the doctrine 
and the constitution of the primitive church on 
her side. But this plea would be more entire and 
less disputable, if our constitution were not only 
in its main and most essential parts, formed upon 



98 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

that glorious model ; but were also in its rules 
and administrations, made more exactly conform- 
able to those best and purest times. I can never 
forget an advice that was given me above thirty- 
years ago, by one of the worthiest clergymen now 
alive : while I was studying the controversy relat- 
ing to the government of the church, from the 
primitive times, he desired me to join with the 
more speculative discoveries that I should make, 
the sense that they had of the obligations of the 
clergy, both with relation to their lives, and to 
their labours : and said, that the argument in fa- 
vour of the church, how clearly soever made out, 
would never have its full effects upon the world, 
till abuses were so far corrected, that we could 
shew a primitive spirit in our administration, as 
well as a primitive pattern for our constitution. 
This made, even then, deep impressions on me, 
and I thank God the sense of it has never left me 
in the whole course of my studies. 

I will not at present enter upon so long and so 
invidious a work as the descending into all the par- 
ticulars, into which this matter might be branched 
out : either from the writings of the fathers, the 
decrees of councils, the Roman law and capitulars, 
or even from the dregs of all, the canon law itself, 
which though a collection made in one of the 
worst ages, yet carries many rules in it, tha*" 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 99 

would seem excessively severe, even to us, after 
our reformation of doctrine and worship. This 
has been already done with so much exactness, 
that it will not be necessary to set about it after 
the harvest, which was gathered by the learned 
bishop of Spalato in the last book of his great 
work ; which the pride and inconstancy of the 
author brought under a disesteem, that it no way 
deserves : for whatever he might be, that work 
was certainly one of the best productions of that 
age. But this design has been prosecuted of late 
with much more exactness and learning, and with 
great honesty and fidelity, where the interest of 
his church did not force him to use a little art, by 
F. Thomasin, who ha? compared the modern and 
the ancient discipline, and has showed very co- 
piously, by what steps the change was made ; and 
how abuses crept into the church. It is a work 
of great use, to such as desire to understand that 
matter truly. I will refer the curious to these, 
and many other lesser treatises, writ by the Jansen- 
ists in France, in which abuses are very honestly 
complained of, and proper remedies are proposed ; 
which in many places being entertained by bishops, 
that had a right sense of the primitive rules, have 
given the rise to a great reformation of the French 
clergy. 

Instead then of any historical deduction of these 
k 2 



100 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

matters, I shall content myself with giving the 
sense of two of the fathers of the Greek church, 
and one of the Latin, upon this whole business, of 
the obligations of the clergy. The first is Gregory 
of Nazianzen, whose father ordained him a pres- 
byter, notwithstanding all his humble intercessions 
to the contrary, according to the custom of the 
best men of that age, who instead of pressing into 
orders, or aspiring to them, fled from them, ex- 
cused themselves, and judging themselves unwor- 
thy of so holy a character and so high a trust, 
were not without difficulty prevailed on to submit 
to that, which in degenerate ages men run to as 
to a subsistence, or the means of procuring it, and 
seems to have no other sense of that sacred insti- 
tution, than mechanics have of obtaining their 
freedom in that trade or company in which they 
have passed their apprenticeship. It were indeed 
happy for the church, if those who offer themselves 
to orders, had but such a sense of them as trades- 
men have of their freedom : who do not pretend 
to it till they have finished the time prescribed ; 
and are in some sort qualified to set up in it : 
whereas, alas ! men who neither know the Scrip- 
tures, nor the body of divinity, who have made no 
progress in their studies, and can give no tolerable 
account of that holy doctrine, in which they desire 
to be teachers, do yet with equal degrees of confi- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 101 

dence, and importunity, pretend to this character, 
and find the way to it too easy, and the access to 
it too free. But this holy father had a very dif- 
ferent sense of this matter. He had indeed sub- 
mitted to his Father's authority, he being his 
bishop as well as his father. But immediately 
after he was ordained, he gave this account of 
himself in his Apologetical Oration, that he judg- 
ing he had not that " sublimity of virtue, nor that 
familiar acquaintance with divine matters, which 
become pastors and teachers ;" he therefore in- 
tending to purify his own soul " to higher degrees 
of virtue, to an exaltation above sensible objects, 
above his body, and above the world, that so he 
might bring his mind to a recollected and divine 
state, and fit his soul that, as a polished mirror, it 
might carry on it the impressions of divine ideas 
unmixed with the allay of earthly objects, and 
might be still casting a brightness upon all his 
thoughts,' ' did, in order to the raising himself to 
that, retire to the wilderness. He had observed 
that many " pressed to handle the holy mysteries, 
with unwashed hands and defiled souls : and be- 
fore they were meet to be initiated to the divine 
vocation, were crowding about the altar ; not to 
set patterns to others, but designing only a sub- 
sistence to themselves ; reckoning that the holy 
dignity was not a trust for which an account was 
k3 



102 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

to be given, but a state of authority and exemption. 
They had neither piety nor parts to recommend 
them, but were the reproaches of the Christian 
religion, and were the pests of the church : w T hich 
infected it faster than any plague could do the air ; 
since men did easily run to imitate bad examples, 
but were drawn off very hardly by the perfectest 
patterns to the practice of virtue. Upon which 
he formed a high idea of the eminent worth and 
virtues which became those who governed the 
church ; and of the great progress that they ought 
to be daily making ; not contented with low mea- 
sures of it, as if they were to weigh it critically in 
nice balances, and not to rise up to the highest de- 
grees possible in it. Yet even this was not all : for 
to govern mankind, which was so various, and so 
uncertain a sort of creature, seemed to him the 
highest pitch of knowledge and wisdom, as far 
above that skill and labour that is necessary to the 
curing of bodily diseases, as the soul is superior 
to the body ; and yet since so much study and 
observation was necessary to make a man a skilful 
physician, he concluded that much more was ne- 
cessary for the spiritual medicine : the design of 
which was to give wings to the soul, to raise it 
above the world, and to consecrate it to God." 
Here he runs out into a noble rapture, upon the 
excellence and sublimity of the Christian religion, 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 103 

and upon the art of governing souls, of the differ- 
ent methods to be taken, according to the diversity 
of men's capacities and tempers ; and of dividing 
the word of God aright, among them; the diffi- 
culties of which he prosecutes in a great variety 
of sublime expressions and figures ; but concludes 
lamenting that ' ' there was so little order then 
observed, that men had scarce passed their child- 
hood, when, before they understood the Scriptures, 
not to say before they had washed off the spots 
and defilements of their souls, if they had learned 
but two or three pious words, which they had got 
by heart, or had read some of the Psalms of David, 
and put on an outward garb that carried an ap- 
pearance of piety in it, these men were presently 
pushed on by the vanity of their minds, to aspire 
to the government of the church.' ' To such per- 
sons he addresses himself very rhetorically, and 
asks them, " what they thought of the commonest 
employments, such as the playing of instruments, 
or of dancing, in comparison with Divine wisdom : 
fur acquiring the one, they knew great pains and 
much practice was necessary : could they then 
imagine that the other should be so easily at- 
tained ?" But he adds, " that one may as well 
sow upon rocks, and talk to the deaf, as hope to 
work upon persons, who have not yet got to that 
degree of wisdom, of being sensible of their own 



104 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

ignorance. This evil he had often with many- 
tears lamented ; but the pride of such men was 
so great, that nothing under the authority of a 
St. Peter or a St. Paul, could work upon them." 
Upon this mention of St. Paul, he breaks out into 
a rapture, upon his labours and sufferings, and 
the care of all the churches that lay on him ; his 
becoming all things to all men, his gentleness 
where that was necessary, and his authority upon 
other occasions, his zeal, his patience, his con- 
stancy, and his prudence, in fulfilling all the parts 
of his ministry. Then he cites several of the pas- 
sages of the prophets, particularly those of Jere- 
miah and Ezekiel, Zachariah and Malachi, which 
relate to the corruptions of the priests and shepherds 
of Israel. And shews how applicable they were 
to the clergy at that time, and that ail the woes 
denounced against the Scribes and Pharisees be- 
longed to them, with heavy aggravations. " These 
thoughts possessed him day and night; they did 
eat out his very strength and substance ; they did 
so afflict and deject him, and gave him so terrible 
a prospect of the judgments of God, which they 
were drawing down upon the church, that he, 
instead of daring to undertake any part of the 
government of it, was only thinking how he should 
cleanse his own soul, and fly from the wrath which 
was to come ; and could not think that he was yet, 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 105 

while so young, meet to handle the holy things." 
Where he runs out into a new rapture in magnify- 
ing the dignity of holy functions, and upon that 
says, " That though he had been dedicated to God 
from his mother's womb, and had renounced the 
world and all that was charming in it, even elo- 
quence itself, and had delighted long in the study 
of the Scriptures, and had subdued many of his 
appetites and passions ; yet after all this, in which 
perhaps he had become a fool in glorying, he had 
so high a notion of the care and government of 
souls, that he thought it above his strength ; espe- 
cially in such bad times in which all things were 
out of order ; factions were formed, and charity 
was lost ; so that the very name of a priest was 
a reproach, as if God had poured out contempt 
upon them j and thereby impious men daily blas- 
phemed his name." And indeed, all the shew of 
religion that remained, was in their mutual heats 
and animosities, concerning some matters of reli- 
gion ; <e they condemned and censured one another, 
they cherished and made use of the worst men, so 
they were true to their party ; they concealed their 
crimes, nay, they flattered and defended some that 
should not have been suffered to enter into the 
sanctuary : They gave the holy things to dogs, 
while they inquired very narrowly into the failings 
of those that differed from them, not that they 



106 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

might lament them, but that they might reproach 
them for them. The same faults which they ex- 
cused in some, were declaimed against in others ; 
so that the very name of a good or a bad man was 
not now considered, as the character of their lives, 
but of their being of or against a side. And these 
abuses were so universal, that they were like 
people like priest : if those heats had arisen upon 
the great heads of religion, he should have com- 
mended the zeal of those who had contended for 
the truth, and should have studied to have followed 
it. But their disputes were about small matters, 
and things of no consequence ; and yet even these 
were fought for, under the glorious title of the 
faith, though the root of all was men's private 
animosities : these things had exposed the Chris- 
tian religion to the hatred of the heathen, and had 
given even the Christians themselves very hard 
thoughts of the clergy : this was grown to that 
height, that they were then acted and represented 
upon the stage ; and made the subject of the 
people's scorn. So that by their means, the name 
of God was blasphemed : this was that which gave 
them much sadder apprehensions, than all that 
could be feared from that wild beast, that was then 
beginning to vex and persecute the church," (by 
which probably Julian is meant) " the comfortable 
prospect of dying for the name of Christ, made 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 107 

that a persecution was not so dreadful a thing, in 
his account, as the sins, the divisions, and distrac- 
tions of Christians /' This then was the reason 
that had made him fly to the wilderness ; for the 
state of the church had made him despond, and 
lose all his courage : he had also gone thither, that 
he might quite break himself to all his appetites 
and passions, and to all the pleasures and concerns 
of this life, that did darken the shinings of the 
Divine image upon his soul, and the emanations 
of the heavenly light. When he considered the 
judgments of God upon bad priests, and many 
other strict rules in the old dispensation, and the 
great obligations that lay upon those who were 
the priests of the living God, and that ought, 
before they presumed to offer up other sacrifices, 
to begin with the oblation of themselves to God ; 
he was upon all these reasons moved to prepare 
himself by so long a retreat. 

I have given this long abstract of his Apologe- 
tical Oration, not only to set before my reader the 
sense that he had of the sacred functions, but 
likewise to shew what were the corruptions of 
that age, and with how much freedom this holy 
father laid them open. If there is any occasion 
for applying any part of this to the present age, 
or to any persons in it, I chose rather to offer it 
in the words of this great man, than in any of my 



108 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

own. I wish few were concerned in them ; and 
that such as are, would make a due application of 
them to themselves, and save others the trouble 
of doing it more severely. 

I go next to another father of the Greek church, 
St. Chrysostom, whose hooks of the priesthood 
have been ever reckoned among the best pieces of 
antiquity. The occasion of writing them was 
this : he had lived many years in great friendship 
with Basil; at last, they having both dedicated 
themselves to sacred studies, the clergy of Antioch 
had resolved to lay hold on them, and to use that 
holy violence which was in those times often done 
to the best men, and to force them to enter into 
orders : which when Basil told Chrysostom, he 
concealed his own intentions, but pressed Basil to 
submit to it, who from that, believing that his 
friend was of the same mind, did not go out of 
the way, so he was laid hold on, but Chrysostom 
had hid himself. Basil, seeing he could not be 
found, did all that was possible to excuse himself; 
but that not being accepted of, he was ordained. 
Next time that he met his friend, he expostulated 
severely with him for having forsaken him upon 
that occasion : this gave the occasion to those 
books, which are pursued in the way of a dia- 
logue. 

The first book contains only the preparatory 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 109 

discourses, according to the method of such writ- 
ings. In the second he runs out to shew, from 
our Saviour's words to St, Peter, " Simon, lovest 
thou me ?" what tender and fervent love both to 
Christ and to his church, a priest ought to feel in 
himself before he enters upon the feeding those 
sheep, which Christ " has purchased with his own 
blood." To lose the souls of the flock first, and 
then one's own soul, through remissness, was no 
light matter. To have both the powers of dark- 
ness, and the works of the flesh to fight against, 
required no ordinary measure both of strength and 
courage. He pursues the allegories of a shepherd, 
and a physician, to shew by the parallel of these 
laid together, the labours and difficulties of the 
priesthood, especially when this authority was to 
be maintained only by the strength of persuasion ; 
and yet sometimes severe methods must be taken, 
like incisions to prevent gangrenes, or to cut off a 
part already corrupted. In the managing this, 
great art and prudence was necessary. A bishop 
ought to have a great and generous, a patient and 
undaunted mind ; therefore, Chrysostom says that 
he found, though he truly loved his Saviour, yet 
he was so afraid to offend him, that he durst not 
undertake a charge, that he did not yet judge him- 
self qualified for. It was not enough that a man 
was tolerably well esteemed by others : he ought 



1 10 OF THE PASTOHAL CARE. 

to examine himself; for that of a bishop's being 
" well reported of," is but one of many characters 
declared necessary by St. Paul. He complains 
much that those who raised men to orders, had 
more regard to rank and wealth, and to much 
time spent in a vain search into profane learning, 
(though Christ chose fishermen and tentmakers), 
than to true worth, and an earnest zeal for the 
real good of the church. In the third book, he 
runs out with a great compass on the praises of 
the priestly function ; he looked upon it as a dig- 
nity raised far above all the honours of this world, 
and approaching to the angelical glory. A priest 
ought to aspire to a purity above that of other 
mortals, answering that of angels. When a priest 
performs the holy functions, is sanctifying the 
holy eucharist, and is offering a crucified Christ 
to the people, his thoughts should carry him hea- 
venwards, and, as it were, translate him into those 
upper regions. If the mosaical priest was to be 
holy, that offered up sacrifices of a lower order, 
how much holier ought the priests of this religion 
to be, to whom Christ has given the power both 
of retaining and forgiving of sins : but if St. Paul, 
after all his visions and labours, after all his rap- 
tures and sufferings, yet was inwardly burnt up 
with the concerns of the church, and laboured 
with much fear and trembling, how much greater 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE* 111 

apprehensions ought other persons to have of 
such a trust? If it were enough to be called to 
this function, and to go through with the duties 
incumbent on it in some tolerable manner, the 
danger were not great; but when the duty, as 
well as dignity, together with the danger belong- 
ing to it, are all laid together, a man is forced to 
have other thoughts of the matter. No man that 
knows he is not capable of conducting a ship, will 
undertake it, let him be pressed to it ever so 
much. Ambitious men, that loved to set them- 
selves forward, were of all others the most exposed 
to temptations. They were apt to be inflamed by 
the smallest provocations, to be glad at the faults 
of others, and troubled if they saw any do well ; 
they courted applause, and aspired to honour; 
they fawned on great persons, and trod on those 
that were below them ; they made base submis- 
sions, indecent addresses, and often brought pre- 
sents to those in authority ; they durst not in any 
sort reprove them for their faults, though they 
reproached the poor out of measure for their 
failings. These were not the natural consequences 
of the dignity of the priesthood; but unworthy 
and denied persons, who, without true merit, had 
been advanced to it, had brought it under reproach. 
There had been no due care used in the choice 
of bishops, and by the means of bad choices the 
l2 



112 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

church was almost ruined, through the gross ig- 
norance and unworthiness of many in that post. 
Certainly a worthy priest has no ambitious aspir- 
ings ; those who fly to this dignity from that base 
principle, will give a full vent to it when they 
have attained it. If submissions, flatteries, and 
money itself, are necessary, all will be employed ; 
therefore it was an indispensable preparation to it, 
that one should be duly sensible of the greatness 
of the trust, and of his own unfitness for it, that 
so he might neither vehemently desire it, nor be 
uneasy if he should happen to be turned out of it. 
A man may desire the office of a bishop, when he 
considers it as a work of toil and labour ; but no- 
thing is more pestiferous than to desire it because 
of the power and authority that accompanies it. 
Such persons can never have the courage that 
ought to shew itself in the discharge of their duty, 
in the reproving of sin, and venturing on the in- 
dignation of great men. He confesses he had not 
yet been able to free his mind from that disease, 
and, till he had subdued it, he judged himself 
bound to fly from all the steps to preferment ; for 
the nearer he should come to it, he reckoned the 
appetite to it would rage the higher within him ; 
whereas the way to break it quite, was to keep 
himself at the greatest distance from it : nor had 
he that vivacity, or lively activity of temper, which 



ii 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 113 

became this function ; nor that softness and gen- 
tleness of mind that was necessary to prepare him 
to bear injuries, to endure contempt, or to treat 
people with the mildness that Christ has enjoined 
his followers, which he thought more necessary to 
a bishop than all fastings, or bodily mortifications 
whatsoever : and he runs out into a long digres- 
sion upon the great mischiefs that a fretful and 
spiteful temper did to him that was under the 
power of it, and to the church, when a bishop 
was soured with it. It will often break out, it 
will be much observed, and will give great scan- 
dal : for as a little smoke will darken and hide the 
clearest object, so if all the rest of a bishop's life 
were brighter than the beams of the sun, a little 
blemish, a passion, or indiscretion, will darken 
all, and make all the rest be forgotten. Allow- 
ances are not made to them as to other men, the 
world expects great things from them, as if they 
had not flesh and blood in them, not a human, but 
an angelical nature ; therefore a bishop ought, by 
a constant watchfulness, and a perpetual strictness, 
to be armed with armour of proof on all sides, 
that no wound may hurt him. Stories will be 
easily believed to his disadvantage, and his clergy 
about him will be ready to find them out, and to 
spread them abroad. He lays this down for a 
certain maxim, that every man knows^ himself 
l 3 



114 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

best ; and therefore, whatsoever others might think 
of him, he who knew well that he had not in 
himself those qualifications that were necessary 
for this function, ought not to suffer himself to be 
determined by that. After this he lays open the 
great disorders, factions, partialities, and calum- 
nies, with which the popular elections were at 
that time managed, and the general corruption 
that had overrun the whole church : so that the 
strictness and authority, the gentleness and pru- 
dence, the courage and patience, that were neces- 
sary to a bishop, were very hard to be found all 
together. He instances, to make out the difficulty 
of discharging the duty of a bishop, in that single 
point, of managing the widows ; who were so 
meddling, so immoral, so factious, and so clamor- 
ous, that this alone was enough to employ a 
bishop's prudence, and exercise his patience. From 
that, and another article relating to it concerning 
the virgins, he goes to consider the trouble, the 
difficulties and censures that bishops were subject 
to, by the hearing of causes that were referred to 
them; many pretending thej- were wronged by 
their judgments, made shipwreck of the faith in 
revenge : and they pressed so hard upon the 
bishop's time, that it was not possible for him to 
content them, and discharge the other parts of his 
duty. Then he reckons up the many visits that 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 115 

were expected from bishops -, the several civilities 
they were obliged to ; which it was hard to ma- 
nage so as not to be either too much or too little 
in them : matter of censure would be found in 
both extremes. Then he reflects on the great 
temper that ought to be observed in the final sen- 
tence of excommunication ; between a gentleness 
to vice on the one hand, and the driving men to 
despair and apostasy on the other. And he con- 
cludes that book with reflections on the vast bur- 
den that follows the care of souls. In his fourth 
book he runs through a variety of arts and profes- 
sions, and shews how much skill and labour were 
necessary for every one of them : from whence he 
concludes strongly, that much more was necessary 
for that which was the most important of all 
others ; so that no consideration whatsoever should 
make a man undertake it, if he did not find him- 
self in some sort qualified for it: more particu- 
larly he ought to be ready to give an account of 
his faith, and to stop the mouths of all gainsayers, 
Jews, Gentiles, and heretics ; in which the igno- 
rance of many bishops, carrying things from one 
extreme to another, had given great occasion to 
errors. A bishop must understand the style and 
phrase of the Scriptures well. From this he runs 
out into a very noble panegyric upon St. Paul, in 
whom a pattern was set to all bishops. His fifth 



116 OF THE PASTORAL OARE. 

book sets out the labour of preaching, the tempta- 
tions to vanity in it, the censures that were apt to 
be made if there was either too much or too little 
art or eloquence in sermons. To this he adds the 
great exactness that a bishop should use in pre- 
serving his reputation, yet without vanity, observ- 
ing a due temper between despising the censures 
of the multitude, and the servile courting of ap- 
plauses. In his sermons he ought, above all things, 
to study to edify, but not to flatter his hearers, or 
to use vain arts to raise esteem or admiration from 
them : since a bishop, whose mind was not purged 
from this disease, must go through many tossings 
and be much disquieted. And upon that he runs 
out so fully upon the temptations to desire ap- 
plause for eloquence, and a readiness in speaking, 
that it plainly appears that he felt that to be his 
own weak side. The sixth book is chiefly em- 
ployed to shew how much a harder thing it was 
to govern the church, than to live in a desert 
under the severest mortifications. 

I will go no further in this abstract ; I hope I 
have drawn out enough to give a curiosity to such 
as have not yet read those excellent books, to do 
it over and over again ; for to any that has a true 
relish, they can never be too often read; every 
reading will afford a fresh pleasure, and new mat- 
ter of instruction and meditation. But I go, in 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 117 

the last place, to offer St. Jerome's sense in this 
matter. I shall not bring together what lies scat- 
tered through his works upon this argument, nor 
shall I quote what he writ in his youth upon it, 
when the natural flame of his temper, joined with 
the heat of youth, might make him carry his 
thoughts further than what human nature could 
bear : but I shall only give an abstract of that 
which he writ to Nepotion on this head in his old 
age, as he says himself, a good part of that epistle 
being a reflection upon the different sense that old 
age gives of these things, from that which he felt 
during the ardour of youth. 

He begins with the title clerk, which signifying 
a lot or portion, '* imports either that the clergy 
are God's portion, or that God is theirs, and that 
therefore they ought to possess God, and be pos- 
sessed of him. He that has this portion must be 
satisfied with it, and pretend to nothing, but hav- 
ing food and raiment, be therewith content, and, 
as men carried their crosses naked, so to be ready 
to carry his. He must not seek the advantages 
of this world in Christ's warfare. Some clerks 
grew richer under Christ, who made himself poor, 
than ever they could have been if they had conti- 
nued in the service of the God of this world ; so 
that the church groaned under the wealth of those 
who were beggars before they forsook the world. 



118 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

Let the strangers and the poor be fed at your 
tables, says he, and in these you entertain Christ 
himself. When you see a trafficking clerk, who 
from being poor grows rich, and from being mean 
becomes great, fly from him as from a plague. 
The conversation of such men corrupted good 
minds ; they sought after wealth, and loved com- 
pany, the public places of conversation, fairs, and 
market-places ; whereas a true clerk loves silence 
and retirement. Then he gives him a strong cau- 
tion against conversing with women, and in parti- 
cular against all those mean compliances which 
some of those clerks used towards rich women, 
by which they got not only presents during their 
lives, but legacies by their wills. That abuse had 
grown to such an intolerable excess, that a law 
was made, excluding priests from having any be- 
nefit by testaments. They were the only persons 
that were put under that incapacity. Heathen 
priests were not included in the law, yet he does 
not complain of the law, but of those who had 
given just occasion for making it. The laws of 
Christ had been contemned, so it was necessary to 
restrain them by human laws. It was the glory 
of a bishop to provide for the poor, but it was the 
reproach of a priest to study the enriching of him- 
self. He reckons up many instances of the base 
and abject flattery of some clerks, to gain upon 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 119 

rich and dying persons, and to get their estates. 
Next he exhorts him to the constant and diligent 
study of the Scriptures ; but to be sure to do 
nothing that should contradict his discourses, or 
give occasion to his hearers to answer him thus, 
Why do not you do as you say ? Then he speaks 
of the union that ought to be between the bishop 
and his clergy ; the affection on the one side, and 
the obedience on the other. In preaching, he must 
not study to draw applauses, but "groans from his 
hearers. Their tears was the best sort of com- 
mendation of a sermon, in which great care was 
to be taken to avoid the methods of the stage, or 
of common declamations. Great use was to be 
made of the Scriptures. The mysteries of our 
faith and the Sacraments of our religion ought to 
be well explained : grimaces and solemn looks are 
often made use of to give weight and authority to 
that which has none in itself. He charges him to 
use a plain simplicity in his habit, neither shewing 
too much nicety on the one hand, that savours of 
luxury, nor such a neglect on the other, as might 
savour of affectation. He recommends particularly 
the care of the poor to him. Then he speaks of 
clergymen's mutually preferring one another ; con- 
sidering that there are different members in one 
body, and that every one has his own function 
and peculiar talent; and that therefore no man 



120 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

ought to overvalue his own, or undervalue his 
neighbour's. A plain clerk ought not to value 
himself upon his simplicity and ignorance, nor 
ought a learned and eloquent man to measure his 
holiness by his rhetoric ; for indeed, of the two, a 
holy simplicity is much more valuable than un- 
sanctified eloquence. He speaks against the af- 
fectation of magnificence and riches, in the worship 
of God, as things more becoming the pomp of the 
Jewish religion, than the humility of the spiritual 
doctrine of Christ. He falls next upon the high 
and sumptuous way of living of some priests, which 
they pretended was necessary to procure them the 
respect that was due to them, and to give them 
interest and credit : but the world, at least the 
better part of it, would always value a priest more 
for his holiness than for his wealth. He charges 
him strictly to avoid all the excesses of wine, and, 
in opposition to that, to fast much, but without 
superstition, or a nicety in the choice of such 
things as he was to live on in the time of fasting. 
Some shewed a trifling superstition in those mat- 
ters, as well as vanity and affectation that was 
indeed scandalous. Plain and simple fasting was 
despised, as not singular nor pompous enough for 
their pride. For it seems by what follows, that 
the clergy was then corrupted with the same dis- 
orders, w T ith which our Saviour had reproached the 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 121 

Pharisees, while they did not study inward purity, 
so much as outward appearances ; nor the pleasing 
of God, so much as the praise of men. But here 
he stops short, for it seems he went too near the 
describing some eminent man in that age. From 
that he turns to the government of a priest's 
tongue : he ought neither to detract from any one 
himself, nor to encourage such as did : the very 
hearkening to slander was very unbecoming. They 
ought to visit their people, but not to report in 
one place what they observed in another ; in that 
they ought to be both discreet and secret. Hip- 
pocrates adjured those that came to study from 
him, to be secret, grave, and prudent in their whole 
behaviour ; but how much more did this become 
those to whom the care of souls was trusted ! Ke 
advises him to visit his people rather in their af- 
flictions, than in their prosperity ; not to go too 
often to their feasts, which must needs lessen him 
that does it too much. He, in the last place, 
speaks very severely of those who applied the 
wealth of the church to their own private uses. It 
was: theft to defraud a friend, but it was sacrilege 
to rob the church. It was a crime that exceeded 
the cruelty of highwaymen, to receive that which 
belonged indeed to the poor, and to withdraw any 
part of it to one's private occasions. He concludes 
with this excuse, that he had named no person, 

M 



122 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

he had not writ to reproach others; but to give 
them warning. And therefore since he had treated 
of the vices of the clergy in general terms, if any 
was offended with him for it, he thereby plainly 
confessed, that he himself was guilty." 



CHAP. V. 



AN ACCOUNT OP SOME CANONS IN DIVERS AGES 
OF THE CHURCH, RELATING TO THE DUTIES 
AND LABOURS OF THE CLERGY. 

I will go no further, in gathering quotations to 
shew the sense that the fathers had in these mat- 
ters ; these are both so full and so express, that I 
can find none more plain and more forcible. I 
shall to these add some of the canons that have 
been made both in the best and in the worst ages 
of the church, obliging bishops and other clerks to 
residence, and to be contented with one cure. In 
that at Sardica that met in the year 347, consist- 
ing of above 350 bishops, two canons were made, 
(the 11th and the 12th,) against bishops who, 
without any urgent necessity, or pressing business, 
should be absent from their church above three 
weeks, and thereby grieve the flock that was com- 
mitted to their care : and even this provision was 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 123 

made because bishops had estates lying out of 
their dioceses ; therefore they were allowed to go 
and look after them, for three weeks, in which 
time they were to perform the divine function in 
the churches to which those estates belonged. 

Many provisions were also made against such as 
went to court, unless they were called by the em- 
perors, or went by a deputation from the church 
upon a public account. There is not any one 
thing more frequently provided against, than that 
any of the clergy should leave their church, and 
go to any other church, or live anywhere else 
without the bishop's leave and consent ; nor is 
there any thing clearer from all the canons of the 
first ages, than that they considered the clergy of 
every church as a body of men dedicated to its 
service ; that lived upon the oblations of the faithful, 
and that was to labour in the several parts of the 
ecclesiastical ministry, as they should be ordered 
by the bishop. 

In the fourth general council at Calcedon, plu- 
ralities do first appear : for they are mentioned 
and condemned in the tenth canon, which runs 
thus : No clerk shall at the same time belong to 
two churches ; to wit, to that in which he was first 
ordained, and that to which, as being the greater, 
he has gone, out of a desire of vain glory ; for such 
as do so, ought to be sent back to that church 
m 2 



124 OF THE TASTORAL CARE. 

in which they were at first ordained, and to serve 
there only : but if any has been translated from 
one church to another, he shall receive nothing 
out of his former church, nor out of any chapel or 
alms-house belonging to it ; and such as shall 
transgress this definition of this general council, 
are condemned by it, to be degraded. I go next 
to a worse scene of the church, to see what pro- 
visions were made in this matter about the eighth 
century, both in the east and in the west: the 
worse that those ages and councils were, it makes 
the argument the stronger; since even bad men 
in bad times, could not justify or suffer such an 
abuse. 

In the year 787, the second council of Nice was 
held, that settled the worship of images. The 15th 
canon of it runs thus : " No clerk shall from 
henceforth be reckoned in two churches,' ' (for 
every church had a catalogue of its clergy, by 
which the dividends were made,) " for this is the 
character of trafficking, and covetousness, and 
wholly estranged from the ecclesiastical custom. 
We have heard from our Saviour's own words, 
that no man can serve two masters ; for he will 
either hate the one or love the other, or cleave to 
the one and despise the other : let every one there- 
fore, according to the apostle's words, continue in 
the vocation in which he is called, and serve in 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 



125 



one church : for those things which filthy lucre has 
brought into church matters, are contrary to God. 
There is a variety of employments, for acquiring 
the necessary supplies of this life : let every one 
that pleases, make use of these, for furnishing 
himself : for the apostle says, ' These hands mi- 
nistered to my necessities, and to those that were 
with me/ This shall be the rule in this town, 
which is guarded by God ; but in remote villages 
an indulgence may be granted, by reason of the 
want of men/' It is upon this that the canonists 
do found the first of the two reasons, for which 
only they allow that a dispensation for holding 
two benefices may be lawful; one is, the want of 
fit and sufficient men for the service of the church. 
The foundation of the other will be found in the 
canon, which I shall next set down. 

It is the 49th canon of the sixth council at Pa- 
ris, under Lewis the Good, in the year 829. This 
council came after a great many that had been 
held by Charles the Great and his son, for purging 
out abuses, and for restoring the primitive disci- 
pline. These councils sat at Frankfort, Mentz, 
Aken, Rheims, Chalons, Tours, Aries ; and this 
of Paris was the last that was held upon that de- 
sign. In these, all the primitive canons relating 
to the lives and labours, and the government of 
the clergy, were renewed. Among others is that 
m 3 



126 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

of Calcedon formerly mentioned; but it seems 
there was no occasion given to make a special one 
against pluralities, before this held at Paris, which 
consisted of four provinces of France, Rheims, 
Sens, Tours, and Rouen. The canon runs thus : 
— " As it becomes every city to have its proper 
bishop ; so it is also becoming and necessary that 
every church dedicated to God, should have its 
proper priest. Yet covetousness, which is idolatry, 
(of which we are much ashamed,) has so got hold 
of some priests, and caught them captives in its 
fetters, that they, blinded with it, know neither 
whither they go, nor what they ought to be or do ; 
so that they being kindled with the fire of covet- 
ousness, and forgetful of the priestly dignit)^ neg- 
lecting the care of those churches to which they 
were promoted, do by some present given or 
promised, procure other churches not only from 
clerks, but from laymen, in which they do against 
law undertake to perform the ministry of Christ. 
It is not known whether their bishops are con- 
sulted in this matter, on not ; if they are, without 
doubt, their bishops become partakers of their sin : 
but if they presume to do it without consulting 
them, yet it is to be imputed to the bishop's neg- 
ligence. There is scarce a priest to be found who 
warreth worthily and diligently in that church in 
which he is dedicated, to the divine service : but 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 127 

how much less will he be able to do that worthily 
in two, three, or more churches? This practice 
brings a reproach on the Christian religion, and a 
confusion on the priestly order. The covetousness 
of the clergy is censured by their people ; the 
worship of God is not performed in places conse- 
crated to him ; and as was observed in the former 
chapters, the souls of the people are thereby much 
endangered. Wherefore, we do all unanimously 
appoint, that no bishop suffer this to be done in 
his parish (or diocese, these words being used 
promiscuously) any more ; and we decree that 
every church that has a congregation belonging to 
it, and has means by which it may subsist, shall 
have its proper priest ; for if it has a congregation, 
but has not means by which it may subsist, that 
matter is left to the bishop, to consider whether it 
can or ought to be supported or not. But it is 
specially recommended to their care, to see that 
under this pretence, no priest may, out of covet- 
ousness, hold two or three churches, in which he 
cannot serve, nor perform the worship of God." — 
The last provisions in this canon, are the grounds 
upon which the canonists found the second just 
cause of dispensing with pluralities, which is, 
when a church is so poor, that the profits which 
arise out of it cannot afford a competent main- 
tenance to a clerk : but then the question arises, 



128 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

What is a competent maintenance ? This they do 
all bring very low, to that which can just maintain 
him : and they have so clogged it, that no pretence 
should be given by so general a word, to covet- 
ousness, voluptuousness or ambition. And indeed 
while we have so many poor churches among us, 
instead of restraining such pluralities, it were ra- 
ther to be wished that it were made easier than by 
law it is at present, either to unite them together, 
or to make one man capable of serving two 
churches, when both benefices make but a tolera- 
ble subsistence, rather than to be forced to have 
a greater number of clerks than can be decently 
maintained ; since it is certain, that it is more for 
the interest of religion, and for the good of souls, 
to have one worthy man serving two churches, 
and dividing himself between them, than to have 
clerks for many benefices, whose scandalous pro- 
visions make too many scandalous incumbents, 
which is one of the greatest diseases and miseries 
of this church. 

But a due care in this matter has no relation to 
the accumulation of livings at great distances, 
(every one of which can well support an incum- 
bent,) upon the same person merely for the mak- 
ing of a family, for the supporting of luxury or 
vanity, or for other base and covetous designs. 
But I go next to two of the worst councils that 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 129 

ever carried the name of general ones, the third 
and the fourth of the Lateran, that we may see 
what was the sense of the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries in this matter, notwithstanding the cor- 
ruption of those ages. The thirteenth canon of 
the third Lateran council runs thus : — " Foras- 
much as some, whose covetousness has no bounds, 
endeavour to procure to themselves divers eccle- 
siastical dignities, and several parish churches, 
against the provisions of the holy canons, by which 
means, though they are scarce able to perform the 
office of one, they do claim the provisions due to 
many ; we do severely require, that this may not 
be done for the future ; and therefore, when any 
church or ecclesiastical ministry is to be given, 
let such a one be sought out for it, as shall reside 
upon the place, and shall be able to discharge the 
care in his own person : if otherwise, he who re- 
ceives any such benefice, contrary to the canons, 
shall lose it, and he who gave it shall likewise lose 
his right of patronage." This canon not being 
found effectual to cure so great an abuse, the 
twenty-ninth canon of the fourth council in the 
Lateran was penned in these words : "It was 
with great care forbidden in the council of the 
Lateran, that any one should have divers ecclesias- 
tical dignities, and more parish churches than one, 
which is contrary to the holy canons. Otherwise 



130 OF THK PASTORAL CARE. 

he that took them should lose them, and he that 
gave them should lose the right of giving them : 
but by reason of some men's presumption and co- 
vetousness, that decree has had little or no effect 
hitherto ; we, therefore, desiring to make a more 
evident and express provision against these abuses, 
do appoint, That whosoever shall receive any be- 
nefice to which a cure of souls is annexed, shall 
thereupon, by law, be deprived of any other such 
benefice, that he formerly had ; and if he endea- 
vours still to hold it, he shall lose the other like- 
wise ; and he to whom the right of the patronage 
of his first benefice did belong, is empowered to 
bestow it upon his accepting another ; and if he 
delays the bestowing it above three months, not 
only shall his right devolve to another, according 
to the decree of the council in the Lateran, but he 
shall be obliged to restore to the church to which 
the benefice belongs, all that which he himself re- 
ceived during the vacancy. This we do likewise 
decree as to parsonages, and do further appoint, 
That no man shall presume to hold more dignities 
or parsonages than one in the same church, even 
though they have no cure of souls annexed to 
them. Provided always, that dispensations may 
be granted by the apostolical see, to persons of 
high birth, or eminently learned (sublimes et lite- 
ratas personas) or dignified in universities (for so the 



OF THE PASTOBAL CARE. 131 

word literati was understood), who, upon occasion, 
may be honoured with greater benefices. " " It was 
by this last proviso, that this, as well as all other 
canons made against these abuses, became quite 
ineffectual; for this had no other effect, but the 
obliging people to go to Rome for dispensations ; 
so that this canon, instead of reforming the abuse, 
did really establish it ; for the qualifications here 
mentioned, were so far stretched, that any person 
that had obtained a degree in any university, came 
within the character of lettered, or learned ; and 
all those that were in any dependence upon great 
men, came likewise within the other qualification 
of high rank and birth. " 

This was the practice among us during the reign 
of Henry VIII. ; and he, when he was beginning 
to threaten the See of Rome in the matter of his 
divorce, got that act to be passed, which has been 
the occasion of so much scandal and disorder in 
this church. It seems to one that considers it 
well, that the clauses which qualify pluralities, 
were grafted upon another bill against spiritual 
persons taking estates to farm, with which that 
act begins : and that in the carrying that on, such 
a temper shewed itself that the other was added to 
it. It contained indeed a limitation of the papal 
authority ; but so many provisions are made, that 
the nobility, clergy, and the more eminent of the 



132 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

gentry, knights in particular, were so taken care 
of, that it could meet with no great opposition in 
the parliament ; but from the state of that time, 
and from several clauses in the act itself, it ap- 
pears it was only intended to be a provisional act, 
though it is conceived in the style of a perpetual 
law. By it then, and by it only, (for I have not 
been able to find that any such act ever passed in 
any kingdom or state in Christendom, many hav- 
ing been made plainly to the contrary in France, 
declaring the obligation to residence to be of Di- 
vine right,) were the abuses that had risen out of 
the canon of one of the worst councils that ever 
was, authorized and settled among us, as far as 
the law of the land can settle them. But, after all, 
it is to be considered, that a law does indeed 
change the legal and political nature of things, it 
gives a title to a freehold and property ; but no hu- 
man law can change the moral and Divine laws, 
and cancel their authority. If a false religion is 
settled by law, it becomes indeed the legal religion, 
but is not a whit the truer for that : and therefore 
if the laws of the gospel oblige clerks to personal 
labour, as w r as formerly made out, an act of parlia- 
ment may indeed qualify a man in law to enjoy 
the benefice, whether he labours in it or not; but 
it can never dissolve his obligation to residence 
and personal labour. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 133 

But, to bring this chapter to an end, I shall only 
add three decrees that were made by the council 
of Trent in this matter, that so it may appear 
what provisions they made against abuses, which 
are still supported by laws among us. A part 
of the first chapter of Reformation, that past in 
the sixth session, runs thus : — " This synod admo- 
nishes all that are set over any cathedral churches, 
by what title soever, that they take heed to them- 
selves, and to all the flock over which the Holy 
Ghost has set them, to govern the church of God,-, 
which he has purchased with his own blood, do 
watch and labour, and fulfil their ministry, as the 
apostle has commanded. And they must know 
that they cannot do this, if, as hirelings, they for- 
sake the flock committed to them, and do not 
watch over those sheep, whose blood will be re- 
quired at their hands in the last day. Since it is 
certain that no excuse will be received, -if the wolf 
devours the sheep when the shepherd does not 
look after them. Yet since, to our great grief, it 
is found, that some at this time neglect the salva- 
tion of their souls, and preferring earthly things to 
heavenly, are still about courts, and forsaking the 
fold, and the care of the sheep trusted to them, 
do give themselves wholly to earthly and temporal 
cares ; therefore, all the ancient canons, which, 
by the iniquity of times, and the corruptions of 



134 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

men, were fallen into desuetude, were renewed 
against non-residents." To which several com- 
pulsory clauses are added, which are indeed slight 
ones, because the execution of them was entirely 
put into the pope's power, and the punishment did 
only lie, if the bishop was absent six months in a 
year. 

This decree did not satisfy those who moved for 
a reformation; so a fuller one was made in the 
23d session, 1st chap., in these words : " Where- 
as, by the law of God, all those to whom the care 
of souls is committed, are commanded to know 
their sheep, to offer sacrifice for them, to feed 
them by the preaching of the word of God, the 
administration of the sacraments, and by the ex- 
ample of a good life, to have a tender care of the 
poor, and all other miserable persons, and to lay 
themselves out upon all the other functions of the 
pastoral care ; which cannot be performed by those 
who do not watch over, nor are present with their 
flock : Therefore this synod does admonish and 
exhort them, that they, remembering the Divine 
precepts, and being made an example to their 
flock, may feed and govern them in righteousness 
and truth. Upon this they declare, that all bi- 
shops, even cardinals themselves, are obliged to 
personal residence in their church and diocese, 
and there to discharge their duty, unless upon some 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 135 

special occasions." By which indeed a door is 
opened to as many corruptions as the court of 
Rome thinks fit to dispense with. Yet without 
this none may be absent above two, or at most 
three months in the whole year ; and even that 
must be upon a just reason, and without any pre- 
judice to the flock : " And they leave this upon the 
consciences of such as withdraw for so long a 
time, who they hope will be religious and tender 
in this matter, since all hearts are known to God, 
and it is no small sin to do his work negligently." 
They declare the breaking this decree to be a mor- 
tal sin, and that such as are guilty of it cannot, 
with a good conscience, enjoy the mean profits 
during such their absence, but are bound to lay 
them out on the fabric, or give them to the poor : 
and all these provisions and punishments they do 
also make against the inferior clergy, that enjoyed 
any benefice to which the care of souls was an- 
nexed ; and the execution of that is put in the 
bishop's hands, who is required not to dispense 
with their residence, unless upon a very weighty 
occasion, above two months ; and in this they give 
the bishop so full an authority, that no appeal or 
prohibition was to lie against his sentence upon 
non-residents, even in the court of Rome. By 
these decrees, though the papal party hindered a 
formal declaration of the obligation to residence by 
n2 



136 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

Divine right, that so room might be still left for the 
dispensing power ; yet they went very near it ; they 
applied passages of Scripture to it, and laid the 
charge of mortal sin upon it. 

In the last place, I shall set down the decree 
that was made in the 24th session, chap. 17, 
against pluralities, in these words : " Whereas the 
ecclesiastical order is perverted, when one clerk 
has the offices of many committed to him, it was, 
therefore, well provided by the holy canons, that 
no man should be put into two churches. But 
many, led by their depraved covetousness, deceiv- 
ing themselves, but not God, are not ashamed to 
elude those good constitutions by several artifices, 
and obtain more benefices than one at the same 
time : Therefore, the synod, being desirous to re- 
store a proper discipline for the government of 
churches, does, by this decree, by which all per- 
sons of what rank soever, even cardinals them- 
selves, shall be bound, appoint, that, for the fu- 
ture, one man shall be capable of receiving only 
one ecclesiastical benefice. But if that is not suf- 
ficient for the decent maintenance of him that has 
it, then it shall be lawful to give him another sim- 
ple benefice, provided that both benefices do not 
require personal residence. This rule must be ap- 
plied not only to cathedrals, but to all other bene- 
fices, whether secular, regular, or such as are held 






OF THE TASTORAL CARE. 137 

by Commendam, or of what sort or order soever 
they may be. And as for such as do at present 
possess either more parish churches than one, or 
one cathedral and another parish church, they 
shall be forced, notwithstanding any dispensations 
or unions that may have been granted them for 
term of life, to resign within the space of six 
months all they do now hold, except one cathedral, 
or one parochial church ; otherwise all the bene- 
fices, whether parochial or others, shall be by law 
esteemed void, and as such they shall be disposed 
of to others. Nor may those who formerly en- 
joyed them, receive the mean profits after the 
term of six months with a good conscience. But 
the synod wishes that some due provision might 
be made, such as the pope shall think fit, for the 
necessities of those who are hereby obliged to re- 
sign." 

These were the decrees that were made by that 
pretended general council : And wheresoever that 
council is received, they^are so seldom dispensed 
with, that the scandal of non-residence, or plura- 
lity, does no more cry in that church. In France, 
though that council is not received, yet such re- 
gard is had to primitive rules, that it is not heard 
of among them. Such examples are to us re- 
proaches indeed, and that of the worst sort ; when 
the argument, from the neglect of the pastoral 
n3 



138 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

care, which gave so great an advantage at first to 
the reformers, and turned the hearts of the world 
SO much frjora their careless pastors to those who 
Viewed more zeal and concern for them, is now 
against us, and lies the other way. If the nature 
of man is so made, that it is not possible but that 
V offences must come/' yet fC woe be to him by 
whom thev come." 



CHAP. VI. 

OF THE DECLARED SENSE AND RULES OF THE 
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN THIS MATTER. 

Whatsoever may be the practice of any among 
us, and whatsoever may be the force of some laws 
that were made in bad times, and perhaps upon 
bad ends, yet we are sure the sense of our church 
is very different : she intended to raise the obliga- 
tion of the pastoral care higher than it was before ; 
and has laid out this matter more fully and more 
strictly than any church ever did in any age, as 
far, at least, as my inquiries can carry me. The 
truest indication of the sense of a church is to be 
taken from her language in her public offices : this 
is that which she speaks the most frequently and 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 139 

the most publicly ; even the articles of doctrine 
are not so much read, and so often heard, as her 
liturgies are. And as this way of reasoning has been 
of late made use of with great advantage against 
the church of Rome, to make her accountable for 
all her public offices in their plain and literal mean- 
ing, so will I make use of it on this occasion. It 
is the stronger in our case ; whose offices being in 
a tongue understood by the people, the argument 
from them does more evidently conclude here. 

In general, then, this is to be observed, — that 
no church before ours., at the Reformation, took a 
formal sponsion at the altar from such as were 
ordained deacons and priests : that was, indeed, 
always demanded of bishops ; but neither in the 
Roman nor Greek Pontifical do we find any such 
solemn vows and promises demanded or made by 
priests or deacons ; nor does any print of this ap- 
pear in the Constitutions, the pretended Areopa- 
gite, or the ancient canons of the church. Bishops 
were asked many questions, as appears by the first 
canon of the fourth council of Carthage. They 
were required to profess their faith, and to promise 
to obey the canons ; which is still observed in the 
Greek church. The questions are more express 
in the Roman Pontifical; and the first of these 
demands a promise, "That they will instruct their 
people in the Christian doctrine, according to the 



140 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

holy Scriptures:" which was the foundation upon 
which our bishops justified the Reformation ; since, 
the first and chief of all their vows binding them 
to this, it was to take place of all others ; and if 
any other parts of those sponsions contradicted 
this, such as their obedience and adherence to 
the see of Rome, they said that these were to be 
limited by this. 

All the account I can give of this general prac- 
tice of the church, in demanding promises only of 
bishops, and not of the other orders, is this : That 
they considered the government of the priests and 
deacons as a thing that was so entirely in the 
bishops, — as it was, indeed, by the first constitu- 
tion, — that it was not thought necessary to bind 
them to their duty by any public vows or pro- 
mises, (though it is very probable that the bishops 
might take private engagements of them before 
they ordained them,) it being in the bishop's power 
to restrain and censure them in a very absolute 
and summary way. But the case was quite dif- 
ferent in bishops, who were all equal by their rank 
and order ; none having any authority over them, 
by any Divine law, or the rules of the Gospel ; 
the power of primates and metropolitans having 
arisen out of ecclesiastical and civil laws, and not 
being equally great in all countries and provinces ; 
and therefore it was more necessary to proceed 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 141 

with greater caution, and to demand a further 
security from them. 

But the new faee of the constitution of the 
church, by which priests were not under so abso- 
lute a subjection to their bishops as they had been 
at first, which was occasioned partly by the tyranny 
of some bishops, to which bounds were set by laws 
and canons ; partly by their having a special pro- 
perty and benefice of their own, and so not being 
maintained by a dividend out of the common stock 
of the church, as at first ; had so altered the state 
of things, that indeed no part of the episcopacy 
was left entirely in the bishop's hands, but the 
power of ordination. This is still free and unre- 
strained ; no writs nor prohibitions from civil 
courts, and no appeals, have clogged or fettered 
this, as they have done all the other parts of their 
authority. Therefore our reformers, observing all 
this, took great care in reforming the office of or- 
dination ; and they made both the charge that is 
given, and the promises that are to be taken, to be 
very express and solemn, that so both the ordain- 
ers and the ordained might be rightly instructed 
in their duty, and struck with the awe and dread 
that they ought to be under in so holy and so 
important a performance. And though all man- 
kind does easily enough agree in this, that pro- 
mises ought to be religiously observed which men 



142 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

make to one another, how apt soever they may be 
to break them ; yet, to make the sense of these 
promises go deeper, they are ordered to be made 
at the altar, and in the nature of a stipulation or 
covenant ; the church conferring orders, or indeed 
rather Christ, by the ministry of the officers that 
he has constituted, conferring them upon those 
promises that are first made. The forms of ordi- 
nation in the Greek church, which we have reason 
to believe are less changed, and more conform to 
the primitive patterns, than those used by the 
Latins, do plainly import that the church only de- 
clared the Divine vocation. " The grace of God, 
that perfects the feeble and heals the weak, pro- 
motes this man to be a deacon, a priest, or a 
bishop ;" where nothing is expressed as conferred, 
but only as declared : so our church, by making 
our Saviour's words the form of ordination, must 
be construed to intend by that, that it is Christ 
only that sends, and that the bishops are only his 
ministers, to pronounce his mission ; otherwise it 
is not so easy to justify the use of this form, " Re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost ;" which, as it was not used 
in the primitive church, nor by the Roman, till 
within these 500 years, so in that church it is not 
the form of ordination, but a benediction given by 
the bishop singly, after the orders are given by 
the bishop and the other priests joining with him ; 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 143 

for this is done by him alone, as the final consum- 
mation of the action. But our using this as the 
form of ordination shews, that we consider our- 
selves only as the instruments that speak in Christ's 
name and words : insinuating thereby that he only 
ordains. Pursuant to this, in the ordaining of 
priests, the questions are put " in the name of God 
and of his church," which makes the answers to 
them to be of the nature of vows and oaths : so 
that if men do make conscience of any thing, and 
if it is possible to strike terror into them, the forms 
of our ordinations are the most effectually con- 
trived for that end that could have been framed. 

The first question that is put in the Office of 
Deacons is, "Do you trust that you are inwardly 
moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this 
office, to serve God, for the promoting of his 
glory, and the edifying of his people ?" To which 
he is to answer, " I trust so." This is put only in 
this office, and not repeated afterwards ; it being 
justly supposed, that where one has had this mo- 
toin, all the other orders may be in time conferred, 
pursuant to it : but this is the first step by which 
a man dedicates himself to the service of God, and 
therefore it ought not to be made by any that has 
not this Divine vocation. Certainly the answer 
that is made to this ought to be well considered ; 
for if any says, " I trust so," that yet knows nothing 



144 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

of any such motion, and can give no account of 
it, he lies to the Holy Ghost, and makes his first 
approach to the altar with a lie in his mouth, and 
that not to men, but to God. And how can one 
expect to be received by God, or be sent and 
sealed by him, that dares do a thing of so crying 
a nature, as to pretend that he trusts he has this 
motion, who knows that he has it not, who has 
made no reflections on it, and when asked what 
he means by it, can say nothing concerning it, 
and yet he dares venture to come and say it before 
God and his church ? If a man pretends a com- 
mission from a prince, or indeed from any person, 
and acts in his name upon it, the law will fall on 
him, and punish him; and shall the " great God 
of heaven and earth" be thus vouched, and his 
motion be pretended to, by those whom he has 
neither called nor sent ? And shall not he reckon 
with those who dare to run without his mission, 
pretending that they trust they have it, when per- 
haps they understand not the importance of it; 
nay, and perhaps some laugh at it, as an enthusi- 
astical question, who yet will go through with the 
office ? They come to Christ for the loaves ; they 
hope to live by the altar and the gospel, how little 
soever they serve at the one, or preach the other : 
therefore they will say any thing that is necessary 
for qualifying them to this, whether true or false. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 145 

It cannot be denied, but that this question carries 
a sound in it that seems a little too high, and that 
may rather raise scruples, as importing somewhat 
that is not ordinary, and that seems to savour of 
enthusiasm ; and therefore it was put here, with- 
out doubt, to give great caution to such as come 
to the service of the church. Many may be able 
to answer it truly, according to the sense of the 
church, who may yet have great doubting in them- 
selves concerning it ; but every man that has it 
not, must needs know that he has it not. 

The true meaning of it must be resolved thus : 
The motives that ought to determine a man to 
dedicate himself to the ministering in the church, 
are, a zeal for promoting the glory of God, for 
raising the honour of the Christian religion, for the 
making it to be better understood, and more sub- 
mitted to. He that loves it, and feels the excel- 
lency of it in himself, that has a due sense of God's 
goodness in it to mankind, and that is entirely 
possessed with that, will feel a zeal within himself 
for communicating that to others : that so ' ' the 
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has 
sent/' may be more universally glorified, and 
served by his creatures. And when to this he 
has added a concern for the souls of men, a ten- 
derness for them, a zeal to rescue them from end- 
less misery, and a desire to put them in the wijr 
o 



146 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

to everlasting happiness ; and from these motives, 
feels in himself a desire to dedicate his life and 
labours to those ends ; and in order to them, 
studies to understand the Scriptures, and more 
particularly the New Testament, that from thence 
he may form a true notion of this holy religion, 
and so be an able minister of it. This man, and 
only this man, so moved and so qualified, can in 
truth and with a good conscience answer, "That 
he trusts he is inwardly moved by the Holy 
Ghost;" and every one that ventures on the say- 
ing it without this, is a sacrilegious profaner of 
the name of God and of his Holy Spirit. He 
breaks in upon his church, not to feed it, but to 
rob it : and it is certain, that he who begins with 
a lie may be sent by the father of lies; but he 
cannot be thought to enter in by the door, who 
prevaricates in the first word that he says in order 
to his admittance. 

But if the office of deacons offers no other par- 
ticular matter of reflection, the office of ordaining 
priests has a great deal ; indeed, the whole of it 
is calculated to the best notions of the best times. 
In the charge that is given, the figures of watch- 
men, shepherds, and stewards are pursued, and 
the places of Scripture relating to these are ap- 
plied to them : " They are required to have always 
printed in their remembrance, how great a trea- 



OF THB PASTORAL CARE. 147 

sure was committed to their charge: the church 
and congregation whom you must serve, is his 
spouse and body. Then the greatness of the fault 
of their negligence, and the horrible punishment 
that will follow upon it, is set before them, in case 
the church, or any member of it, take any hurt 
or hinderance by reason of it. They are charged 
never to cease their labour, care, and diligence, 
till they have done all that lieth in them, accord- 
ing to their bounden duty, towards all such as 
are or shall be committed to their care, to bring 
them to a ripeness and perfection of age in Christ/' 
They are again urged to M consider with what care 
and study they ought to apply themselves to this ; 
to pray earnestly for God's Holy Spirit, and to be 
studious in reading and learning of the Scriptures ; 
and to forsake and set aside, as much as they 
may, all worldly cares and studies. It is hoped 
that they have clearly determined, by God's grace, 
to give themselves wholly to this vocation; and, 
as much as lieth in them, to apply themselves 
wholly to this one thing, and to draw all their 
cares and studies this way, and to this end ; and 
that by their daily reading and weighing the Scrip- 
tures, they will study to wax riper and stronger 
in their ministry." These are some of the words 
of the preparatory charge given by the bishop 
when he enters upon this office, before he* r>uts 
o2 



148 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

the questions that follow to those who are to be 
ordained. What greater force or energy could be 
put in words, than is in these ? Or where could 
any be found that are more weighty and more ex- 
press, to shew the entire dedication of the whole 
man, of his time and labours, and the " separating 
himself from all other cares, to follow this one 
thing with all possible application and zeal V[ 
There is nothing in any office, ancient or modern, 
that I ever saw, which is of this force, so serious 
and so solemn; and it plainly implies, not only 
the sense of the church upon this whole matter, 
but likewise their design who framed it, to oblige 
priests, notwithstanding any relaxation that the 
laws of the land had still favoured, by the firmest 
and sacredest bonds possible, to attend upon their 
flocks, and to do their duties to them. For a 
bare residence, without labouring, is but a mock 
residence ; since the obligation to it is in order to 
a further end, that they may " watch over" and 
" feed their flock, " and not enjoy their benefices 
only as farms or as livings, according to the gross 
but common abuse of our language, by which the 
names of cures, parishes, or benefices, which are 
the ecclesiastical names, are now swallowed up into 
that of ' ' living," which carries a carnal idea in the 
very sound of the word, and I doubt a more carnal 
effect on the minds of both clergy and laity. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 149 

Whatever we may be, our church is free of this 
reproach, since this charge carries their duty as 
high and as borne as any thing that can be laid in 
words. And it is further to be considered, that 
this is not of the nature of a private exhortation, 
in which a man of lively thoughts and a warm 
fancy may be apt to carry a point too high ; it is 
the constant and uniform voice of the church. 
Nor is it of the nature of a charge, which is only 
the sense of him that gives it, and to which the 
person to whom it is given is only passive : he 
hears it, but cannot be bound by another man's 
thoughts or words, further than as the nature of 
things binds him. But orders are of the nature 
of a covenant between Christ and the clerks, in 
which so many privileges and powers are granted 
on the one part, and so many duties and offices 
are promised on the other ; and this charge being 
the preface to it, it is stipulatory. It declares the 
whole covenant of both sides ; and so those who 
receive orders upon it are as much bound by every 
part of it, and it becomes as much their own act, 
as if they had pronounced or promised it all in 
the most formal words that could be ; and indeed 
the answers and promises, that are afterwards 
made, are only the application of this to the par- 
ticular persons, for giving them a plainer and 
livelier sense of their obligation, which yet, in 
o 3 



150 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

itself, was as entire and strong, whether they had 
made any promise by words of their own or not. 

But, to put the matter out of doubt, let us look 
a little further into the office, to the promises that 
they make with relation to their flock, even to 
such " as are or shall be committed to their 
charge." They promise, " That, by the help of 
the Lord, they will give their faithful diligence 
always so to minister the doctrine and sacraments, 
and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath com- 
manded, and as this realm hath received the same, 
according to the commandment of God; so that 
they may teach the people committed to their care 
and charge, w T ith all diligence to keep and observe 
the same." This does plainly bind to personal 
labour : the mention that is made of " what this 
realm has received' ' being limited by what follows, 
" according to the commandment of God," shews, 
that by this is meant the reformation of the doc- 
trine and worship that was then received, and 
established by law ; by which these general words, 
" the doctrine, and sacraments, and discipline of 
Christ," to which all parties pretend, are deter- 
mined to our constitution ; so that though there 
were some disorders among us, not yet provided 
against by the laws of the land, this does not 
secure a reserve for them. This is so slight a 
remark, that I should be ashamed to have made 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 151 

it, if it had not been urged to myself, slight as it 
is, to justify, in point of conscience, the claiming 
all such privileges or qualifications as are still 
allowed by-law, But I go on to the other pro- 
mises. The clerk says, " He will, by the help 
of God, be ready, with all faithful diligence, to 
banish and drive away all erroneous and strange 
doctrines, contrary to God's word ; and to use 
both public and private admonitions and exhorta- 
tions, as well to the sick as to the whole within 
his cure, as need shall require, and as occasion 
shall be given." This is as plainly personal and 
constant as words can make any thing ; and in 
this is expressed the so much neglected, but so 
necessary duty, which incumbents owe their flock, 
in a private way, visiting, instructing, and admo- 
nishing them, w T hich is one of the most useful and 
important parts of their duty, how generally soever 
it may be disused or forgotten : these being the 
chief instances and acts of * ' watching over and 
feeding the flock/' that is committed to their care. 
In the next place, they promise, " That they will 
be diligent in prayers, and in reading of the holy 
Scriptures, and in such studies as help the know- 
ledge of the same, laying aside the study of the 
world and the flesh." This still carries on that 
great notion of the pastoral care, which runs 
through this whole office ; that it is to be a man's 



152 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

entire business, and is to possess both his thoughts 
and his time. They do further promise, " That 
they will maintain, and set forward, as much as 
lieth in them, quietness, peace, and love among 
all Christian people, and especially among them 
that are, or shall be, committed to their charge." 

These are the vows and promises that priests 
make before they can be ordained. And, to com- 
plete the stipulation, the bishop concludes it with 
a prayer to God, " who has given them the will 
to do all these things, to give them also strength 
and power to" perform the same ; that he may 
accomplish his work that he hath begun in them, 
until the time that he shall come, at the latter 
day, to judge the quick and the dead." Upon 
the whole matter, either this is all a piece of gross 
and impudent pageantry, dressed up in grave and 
lofty expressions, to strike upon the weaker part 
of mankind, and to furnish the rest with matter to 
their profane and impious scorn ; or it must be 
confessed that priests come under the most formal 
and express engagements, to constant and diligent 
labour, that can possibly be contrived or set forth 
in words. It is upon this that they are ordained ; 
so their ordination being the consummation of this 
compact, it must be acknowledged that, accord- 
ing to the nature of all mutual compacts, a total 
failure on the one side does also dissolve all the 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 153 

obligation that lay on the other. And, therefore, 
those who do not perform their part, that do not 
reside and labour, they do also, in the sight of 
God, forfeit all the authority and privileges that 
do follow their orders, as much as a Christian at 
large, that does not perform his baptismal vow, 
forfeits the rights and benefits of his baptism, in 
the sight of God; though, both in the one and in 
the other, it is necessary that, for the preventing 
of disorder and confusion, a sentence declaratory 
of excommunication in the one, as of degradation 
in the other, pass, before the visible acts and 
rights, pursuant to those rites, can be denied. 

To all this I will add one thing more; which 
is, that since our book of ordination is a part of 
our liturgy, and likewise a part of the law of the 
land ; and since constant attendance, and diligent 
labour, is made necessary by it, and since this 
law is subsequent to the act of the 21st of Henry 
VIII., that qualifies so many for pluralities and 
non-residence, and is, in plain terms, contrary to 
it ; this, as subsequent, does repeal all that it 
contradicts. It is upon all this a matter that 
to me seems plain, that by this law the other is 
repealed, in so far as it is inconsistent with it. 
This argument is by this consideration made the 
stronger, that the act of king Henry does not 
enact that such things shall be, but only reserves 



154 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

privileges for such as may be capable of an ex- 
emption from the common and general rules. 
Now, by the principles of law, all privileges or 
exemptions of that sort are odious things ; and the 
construction of law lying hard and heavy against 
odious cases, it appears to me, according to the 
general grounds of law, very probable, (I speak 
within bounds when I say only probable,) that 
the act of uniformity, which makes the offices of 
ordination a part of the law of England, is a repeal 
of that part of the act of king Henry, which qua- 
lifies for pluralities. To conclude, whatsoever 
may be the strength of this plea in bar to that 
act, if our faith, given to God and his church in 
the most express and plainest words possible, does 
bind, if promises given at the altar do oblige, and 
if a stipulation, in the consideration of which or- 
ders are given, is sacred, and of an indispensable 
obligation, then, I am sure, this is. 

To make the whole matter yet the stronger, 
this office is to be completed with a communion ; 
so that upon this occasion, that is not only a piece 
of religious devotion accompanying it, but it is 
the taking the sacrament upon the stipulation that 
has been made between the priest and the church : 
so that those who have framed this office, have 
certainly intended, by all the ways that they could 
think on, and by the weightiest words they could 



OF THE TASTORAL CARE. 155 

choose, to make the sense of the priestly function, 
and of the duties belonging to it, give deep and 
strong impressions to such as are ordained. I 
have compared with it all the exhortations that 
are in all the offices I could find, ancient and 
modern, whether of the Greek or the Latin 
church ; and this must be said of ours, without 
any sort of partiality to our own forms, that no 
sort of comparison can be made between ours and 
all the others ; and that as much as ours is more 
simple than those as to its rites and ceremonies, 
which swell up other offices, so much is it more 
grave and weighty in the exhortations, collects, 
and sponsions that are made in it. In the Roman 
Pontifical no promises are demanded of priests, 
but only that of obedience ; bishops, in a corrupted 
state of the church, taking care only of their own 
authority, while they neglected more important 
obligations. 

In the office of consecrating bishops, as all the 
sponsions made by them, when they w r ere ordained 
priests, are to be considered as still binding, since 
the inferior office does still subsist in the superior ; 
so there are new ones superadded, proportioned to 
the exaltation of dignity and authority that ac- 
companies that office. In the Roman Pontifical 
there are indeed questions put to a bishop, before 
he is consecrated ; but of all these, the first only 



156 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

is that which has any relation to his flock, which 
is in these words : ' ' Wilt thou teach the people 
over whom thou art to be set, both by the exam- 
ple and doctrine, those things that thou learnest 
out of the holy Scriptures ?" All the rest are 
general, and relate only to his conversation, but 
not at all to his labours in his diocese ; whereas, 
on the contrary, the engagements in our office do 
regard not only a bishop's own conversation, but 
chiefly his duty to his people : he declares, that 
"he is determined to instruct the people commit- 
ted to his charge, out of the holy Scriptures ; that 
he will study them, so as to be able, by them, to 
teach and exhort with wholesome doctrine, and 
withstand and convince the gainsay ers ; that he 
will be ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish 
and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine 
contrary to God's word; and both privately and 
openly to call upon, and encourage others to the 
same ; that he will maintain and set forward, as 
much as lies in him, quietness, love, and peace 
among all men, and correct and punish such as 
be unquiet, disobedient, and criminous, within his 
diocese, according to such authority as he has. 
In particular ; he promises to be faithful in or- 
daining, sending, or laying hands upon others ; 
he promises also to shew himself to be gentle and 
merciful, for Christ's sake, to poor and needy 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 157 

people, and to all strangers destitute of help." 
These are the covenants and promises under which 
bishops are put, which are again reinforced upon 
them, in the charge that is given immediately 
after their consecration when the bible is put into 
their hands : " Give heed to reading, exhortation, 
and doctrine ; think upon the things contained in 
this book ; be diligent in them, that the increase 
coming thereby may be manifest unto all men. 
Take heed unto thyself, and to doctrine, and be 
diligent in doing them ; for by doing this thou 
shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. 
Be thou to the flock of Christ a shepherd, not a 
w r olf ; feed them, devour them not. Hold up the 
weak, heal the sick, bind up the broken, bring 
again the outcasts, seek the lost. Be so merciful, 
that you be not too remiss ; so minister discipline, 
that you forget not mercy ; that when the chief 
shepherd shall appear, you may receive the never- 
fading crown of glory, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." In these words the great lines of our duty 
are drawn in very expressive and comprehensive 
terms. We have the several branches of our func- 
tion, both as to preaching and governing, very 
solemnly laid upon us. And both in this office, 
as well as in all the other offices that I have seen, 
it appears, that the constant sense of all churches 
in all ages has been, that preaching was the 



158 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

bishop's great duty, and that he ought to lay him- 
self out in it most particularly. 

I shall only add one advice to all this, before I 
leave this article of the sense of our church in this 
matter ; both to those who intend to take orders, 
and to those who have already taken them. As 
for such as do intend to dedicate themselves to the 
service of the church, they ought to read over 
these offices frequently ; and to ask themselves 
solemnly, as in the presence of God, whether they 
can, with a good conscience, make those answers 
which the book prescribes or not ? And not to 
venture on offering themselves to orders, till they 
know that they dare, and may safely do it. Every 
person who looks that way, ought at least, on 
every ordination Sunday, after he has once formed 
the resolution of dedicating himself to this work, 
to go over the office seriously with himself, and 
to consider in what disposition or preparation of 
mind he is, suitable to what he finds laid down 
in it. But I should add to this, that, for a year 
before he comes to be ordained, he should, every 
first Sunday of the month, read over the office 
very deliberately ; and frame resolutions, conform 
to the several parts of it, and, if he can, receive 
the sacrament upon it, with a special set of private 
devotions relating to his intentions. As the time 
of his ordination draws near, he ought to return 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 159 

the oftener to those exercises. It will be no hard 
task for him to read these over every Sunday, 
during the last quarter before his ordination ; and 
to do that yet more solemnly, every day of the 
week in which he is to be ordained ; and to join a 
greater earnestness of fasting and prayer with it 
on the fast days of his Ember week. 

Here is no hard imposition. The performance is 
as easy in itself, as it will be successful in its effects. 
If I did not consider, rather what the age can bear, 
than what were to be wished for, I would add a 
great many severe rules calculated to the notions of 
the primitive times. But if this advice were put in 
practice, it is to be hoped, that it would set back 
many who come to be ordained, without considering 
duly, either what it is that they ask, or what it is 
that is to be asked of them : which some do with so 
supine a negligence, that we plainly see that they 
have not so much as read the office, or, at least, 
that they have done it in so slight a maimer, that 
they have formed no clear notions upon any part 
of it ; and, least of all, upon those parts to which 
they themselves are to make answers. And as 
such a method as I have proposed would probably 
strike some with a due awe of Divine matters, so 
as to keep them at a distance till they were, in 
some sort, prepared for them ; so it would oblige 
such as come to it, to bring along with him a 
p2 



160 OF THK PASTORAL CARE. 

serious temper of mind, and such a preparation of 
soul, as might make that their orders should be a 
blessing to them as well as they themselves should 
be a blessing to the church. It must be the greatest 
joy of a bishop's life, who truly minds his duty in 
this weighty trust of sending out labourers into 
God's vineyard ; to ordain such persons, of whom 
he has just grounds to hope that they shall do 
their duty faithfully, in reaping that harvest. He 
reckons these as his children indeed, who are to 
be his strength and support, his fellow-labourers 
and helpers, his crown and his glory. But, on 
the other hand, how heavy a part of his office 
must it be, to ordain those against whom, perhaps, 
there lies no just objection, so that, according to 
the constitution and rules of the church, he can- 
not deny them ; and yet he sees nothing in them 
that gives him courage or cheerfulness. They do not 
seem to have that love to God, that zeal for Christ, 
that tenderness for souls, that meekness and humi- 
lity, that mortification and deadness to the world, 
that becomes the character and profession which 
they undertake ; so that his heart fails him, and his 
hands tremble when he goes to ordain them. 

My next advice shall be to those who are 
already in orders, that they will, at least four 
times a year, on the ordination Sundays, read 
over the offices of the degrees of the church in 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 161 

which they are : and will particularly consider the 
charge that was given, and the answers that were 
made by them ; and then ask themselves, as be- 
fore God, who will judge them at the great day 
upon their religious performance of them, w T hether 
they have been true to them or not ; that so they 
may humble themselves for their errors and omis* 
sions, and may renew their vows for the future, 
and so to be going on, from quarter to quarter, 
through the whole course of their ministry, ob- 
serving still what ground they gain, and what 
progress they make ; to such as have a right sense 
of their duty, this will be no hard performance. 
It will give a vast joy to those who can go through 
it with some measure of assurance, and finds, that, 
though in the midst of many temptations and of 
much weakness, they are sincerely and seriously 
going on in their work to the best of their skill, 
and to the utmost of their power ; so that their 
consciences say within them, and that without the 
partialities of self-love and flattery, " Well done, 
good and faithful servant :" the hearing of this 
said within, upon true grounds, being the certain- 
est evidence possible, that it shall be publicly said 
at the last great day. This exercise will also offer 
checks to a man that looks for them, and intends 
both to understand his errors, and to cleanse him- 
self from them. It will, upon the whole matter, 
p3 



162 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

make clergymen go on with their profession, as 
the business and labour of their lives. 

Having known the very good effect that this 
method has had on some, I dare the more confi- 
dently recommend it to all others. 

Before I conclude this chapter, I will shew what 
rules our reformers had prepared with relation to 
non-residence and pluralities ; which though they 
never passed into laws, and so have no binding 
force with them, yet in these we see what was 
the sense of those that prepared our offices, and 
that were the chief instruments in that blessed 
work of our reformation. The 12th chapter of the 
title, concerning those that were to be admitted 
to ecclesiastical benefices, runs thus : " Whereas, 
when many benefices are conferred on one person, 
every one of these must be served with less order 
and exactness, and many learned men, who are 
not provided, are by that means shut out; there- 
fore, such as examine the persons who are pro- 
posed for benefices, are to ask every one of them, 
whether he has at that time another benefice or 
not ; and if he confesses that he has, then they 
shall not consent to his obtaining that to which he 
is presented, or the first benefice shall be made 
void, as in case of death, so ihtt the patron may 
present any other person to it," Chapter 13th is 
against dispensations, in these words : "No man, 



OF THE PASTOHAL CARE. 163 

shall hereafter be capable of any privilege, by- 
virtue of which he may hold more parishes than 
one ; but such as have already obtained any such 
dispensations for pluralities, shall not be deprived 
of the effects of them by virtue of this law." 
The 14th chapter relates to residence, in these 
words : "If any man, by reason of age or sick- 
ness, is disabled from discharging his duty, or if 
he has any just cause of absence for some time, 
that shall be approved of by the bishop, he must 
take care to place a worthy person to serve during 
his absence. But the bishops ought to take a 
special care, that, upon no regard whatsoever, 
any person may, upon feigned or pretended rea- 
sons, be suffered to be longer absent from his 
parish, than a real necessity shall require. " 

These are some of the rules which were then 
prepared, and happy had it been for our church, 
if that whole work of the reformation of the eccle- 
siastical law had been then settled among us. Then 
we might justly have said, that our reformation 
was complete, and not have lamented, as our 
church still does in the office of commination, 
4i that the godly discipline which was in the pri- 
mitive church is not yet restored, 1 ' how much and 
how long soever it has been wished for. It is 
more than probable that we should neither have 
bad any schisms, nor civil wars, if that great de- 



164 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

sign had not been abortive. If but the 9th and 
20th titles of that work, which treat of the pub- 
lic offices and officers in the church, had become a 
part of our law, and been duly executed, we 
should, indeed, have had matter of glorying in the 
world. 

In the canons of the year 1571, though there 
was not then strength enough in the church to 
cure so inveterate a disease, as non-residence ; yet 
she expressed her detestation of it, in these words : 
M The absence of a pastor from the Lord's flock, 
and that supiiife negligence and abandoning of the 
ministry, which we observe in many, is a thing 
vile in itself, odious to the people, and pernicious 
to the church of God : therefore we exhort all the 
pastors of churches in our Lord Jesus, that they 
will, as soon as possible, come to their churches, 
and diligently preach the Gospel ; and, according 
to the value of their livings, that they will keep 
house, and hospitably relieve the poor." It is true* 
all this is much lessened by the last words of that 
article, " That every year they must reside, at 
least, threescore days upon their benefices." By 
the canons made at that time, pluralities were also 
limited to twenty miles' distance. But this was 
enlarged to thirty miles, by the canons in the year 
1597. Yet by these the pluralist was required to 
spend " a good part of the year" in both his bene- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 165 

fices. And upon this has the matter rested ever 
since ; but there is no express definition made how 
far that general word of " a good part of the year" 
is to be understood. 

I will not to this add a long invidious history of 
all the attempts that have been made for the re- 
forming these abuses, nor the methods that have 
been made use of to defeat them. They have been 
but too successful, so that we still groan under our 
abuses, and do not know when the time shall 
come in which we shall be freed from them. The 
defenders of those abuses, who get too much by 
them to be willing to part with them, have made 
great use of this, that it was the puritan party 
that, during queen Elizabeth and king James the 
First's reign, promoted these bills to render the 
church odious : whereas it seems more probable 
that those who set them forward, what invidious 
characters soever their enemies might put them 
under, were really the friends of the church ; and 
that they intended to preserve it, by freeing it 
from so crying and so visible an abuse ; which 
gives an offence and scandal that is not found out 
by much learning and great observation, but arises 
so evidently out of the nature of things, that a 
small measure of common sense helps every one to 
see it, and to be deeply prejudiced against it. But 
since our church has fallen under the evils and 



166 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

mischiefs of schism, none of those who divide from 
us have made any more attempts this way; hut 
seem rather to be not ill pleased that such scan- 
dals should be still among us, as hoping that this 
is so great a load upon our church, that it both 
weakens our strength and lessens our authority. 
It is certainly the interest of an enemy, to suffer 
the body to which he opposes himself to lie under 
as many prejudices, and to be liable to as much 
censure *as is possible ; whereas every good and 
wise friend studies to preserve that body to which 
he unites himself, by freeing it from every thing 
that may render it less acceptable and less use- 
ful. 

Here I will leave this argument, having, I think, 
said enough to convince all that have a true zeal to 
our church, and that think themselves bound in 
conscience to obey its rules, and that seem to have 
a particular jealousy of the civil power's breaking 
in too far upon the ecclesiastical authority, that 
there can be nothing more plain and express, than 
that our church intends to bring all her priests un- 
der the strictest obligations possible to constant 
and personal labour, and that in this she pursues 
the designs and canons, not only of the primitive 
and best times, but even of the worst ages ; since 
none were ever so corrupt, as not to condemn 
those abuses by canon, even when they maintained 



OP THE PASTORAL CARE. 1 67 

them in practice. She does not only bind them to 
this, by the charge she appoints to be given, but 
also by the vows and promises that she demands 
of such as are ordained. When all this is laid to- 
gether, and when there stands nothing on the 
other side to balance it, but a law made in a very 
bad time, that took away some abuses, but left 
pretences to cover others ; can any man, that 
weighs these things together, in the sight of God, 
and that believes he must answer to him for this 
at the great day, think, that the one, how strong 
soever it may be in his favour at an earthly tribu- 
nal, will be of any force in that last and dreadful 
judgment ? This I leave upon all men's con- 
sciences ; hoping that " they will so judge them- 
selves, that they shall not be judged of the 
Lord/' 



CHAP. VII. 

OF THE DUE PREPARATION OF SUCH AS MAY, 
AND OUGHT TO BE, PUT IN ORDERS. 

The greatest good that one can hope to do in 
this world is upon young persons, who have not 
yet taken their ply, and are not spoiled with pre- 



168 OP THE PASTORAL CARE. 

judices and wrong notions. Those who have 
taken an ill one at first, will neither be at the 
pains to look over their notions, nor turn to new 
methods ; nor will they, by any change of prac- 
tice, seem to confess that they were once in the 
wrong : so that if matters that are amiss can be 
mended or set right, it must be by giving those 
that have not yet set out, and that are not yet en- 
gaged, truer views and juster ideas of things. I 
will, therefore, here lay down the model upon 
which a clerk is to be formed, and will begin with 
such things as ought to be previous and prepara- 
tory to his being initiated into orders. 

These are of two sorts : the one is of such pre- 
parations as are necessary to give his heart and 
soul a right temper, and a true sense of things ; 
the other is of such studies as are necessary to en- 
able him to go through with the several parts of his 
duty. Both are necessary ; but the first is the more 
indispensable of the two ; for a man of a good soul 
may, with a moderate proportion of knowledge, 
do great service in the church, especially if he is 
suited with an employment that is not above his 
talent : whereas unsancthied knowledge puffs up, 
is insolent and unquiet, it gives great scandal, and 
occasions much distraction in the church. In 
treating of these qualifications, I will watch over 
my thoughts, not to let them rise to a pitch that 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 169 

is above what the common frailties of human na- 
ture, or the age we live in, can bear : and after all, 
if in any thing I may seem to exceed these mea- 
sures, it is to be considered that it is natural, in 
proposing the ideas of things, to carry them to 
what is wished for, which is but too often beyond 
what can be expected ; considering both the cor- 
ruption of mankind, and of these degenerated 
times. 

First of all, then, he that intends to dedicate 
himself to the church, ought, from the time that 
he takes up any such resolution, to enter upon a 
greater decency of behaviour, that his mind may 
not be vitiated by ill habits, which may both give 
such bad characters of him, as may stick long on 
him afterwards, and make such ill impressions on 
himself, as may not be easily w T orn out or defaced. 
He ought, above all things, to possess himself 
with a high sense of the Christian religion, — of 
its truth and excellence, — of the value of souls, — 
of the dignity of the pastoral care, — of the honour 
of God, — of the sacredness of holy functions, — 
and of the great trust that is committed to those 
who are set apart from the w T orld, and dedicated 
to God and to his church. He who looks this w r ay, 
must break himself to the appetites of pleasure or 
wealth, of ambition or authority ; he must consi- 
der that the religion in which he intends to offi- 
Q 



170 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

ciate calls all men to great purity and virtue, to a 
probity and innocence of manners, to a meekness 
and gentleness, to a humility and self-denial, to a 
contempt of the world and heavenly-mindedness, 
to a patient resignation to the will of God, and a 
readiness to bear the cross, in the hopes of that 
everlasting reward which is reserved for Christians 
in another state ; all which was eminently recom- 
mended by the unblemished pattern that the Au- 
thor of this religion has set, to all that pretend to 
be his followers. These being the obligations 
which a preacher of the Gospel is to lay daily 
upon all his hearers, he ought certainly to accus- 
tom himself often to consider seriously of them ; 
and to think how shameless and impudent a thing 
it will be in him, to perform offices suitable to all 
these, and that do suppose them, — to be instruct- 
ing the people, and exhorting them to the practice 
of them, — unless he is in some sort all this himself 
w T hich he teaches others to be. 

Indeed, to be tied to such an employment, while 
one has not an inward conformity to it, and com- 
placence in it, is both the most unbecoming, the 
most unpleasant, and the most uncomfortable state 
of life imaginable. Such a person will be exposed 
to all men's censures and reproaches, who, when 
they see things amiss in his conduct, do not only 
reproach him, but the whole church and body to 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 171 

which he belongs, and, which is more, the religion 
which he seems to recommend by his discourses ; 
though his life and actions, which will always pass 
for the most real declaration of his inward senti- 
ments, are a visible and continual opposition to it. 
On all these things, he whose thoughts carry him 
toward the church ought to reflect frequently. 
Nothing is so odious as a man that disagrees with 
his character : a soldier that is a coward, a courtier 
that is brutal, an ambassador that is abject, are 
not such unseemly things, as a bad or vicious, a 
drunken or dissolute clergyman. But though his 
scandals should not rise up to so high a pitch, 
even a proud and passionate, a worldly-minded and 
covetous priest, gives the lie to his discourses so 
palpably, that he cannot expect they should have 
much weight. Nor is such a man's state of life less 
unpleasant to himself, than it is unbecoming. He 
is obliged to be often performing offices, and pro- 
nouncing discourses, in which, if he is not a good 
man, he not only has no pleasure, but must have 
a formed aversion to them. They must be the 
heaviest burden of his life : he must often feel secret 
challenges within ; and though he as often silences 
these, yet such unwelcome reflections are uncom- 
fortable things. He is forced to manage himself 
with a perpetual constraint, and to observe a deco- 
rum in his deportment, lest he fall under a more 
q2 



172 OF THE FASTORAL CARE. 

public censure. Now, to be bound to act a part, 
and live with restraint one's whole life, must be a 
very melancholy thing. He cannot go so quite 
out of sight of religion and convictions as other 
bad men do, who live in a perpetual hurry, and a 
total forgetfulness of divine matters. They have 
no checks, because they are as seldom in the way 
to find them as is possible. But a clerk cannot 
keep himself out of their way ; he must remember 
them, and speak of them, at least upon some occa- 
sions, whether he will or no : he has no other way 
to secure himself against them, but by trying what 
he can do to make himself absolutely disbelieve 
them. Negative atheism, that is, a total neglect 
of all religion, is but too easily arrived at : yet this 
will not serve his turn ; he must build his atheism 
upon some bottom, that he may find quiet in it. 
If he is an ignorant man, he is not furnished with 
those flights of wit, and shews of learning, that 
must support it : but if he is really learned, he 
will soon be beaten out of them; for a learned 
atheism is so hard a thing to be conceived, that 
unless a mans powers are first strangely vitiated, 
it is not easy to see how any one can bring himself 
to it. There is nothing that can settle the quiet of 
an ill priest's mind and life, but a stupid formality, 
and a callus that he contracts by Ins insensible way 
of handling divine matters, by which he becomes 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 173 

hardened against them. But if this settles him, by 
stupifying his own powers/ it does put him also so 
far out of the reach of conviction, in all the ordi- 
nary methods of grace, that it is scarce possible he 
can ever be awakened, and, by consequence, that 
he can be saved : and if he perishes, he must fall 
into the lowest degree of misery, even to the por- 
tion of hypocrites; for his whole life has been a 
course of hypocrisy, in the strictest sense of the 
word, — which is the acting of a part, and the 
counterfeiting another person. His sins have in 
them all possible aggravations ; they are against 
knowledge and against vows, and contrary to his 
character ; they carry in them a deliberate con- 
tempt of all the truths and obligations of religion : 
and if he perishes, he does not perish alone, but 
carries a shoal down with him, either of those who 
have perished in ignorance, through his neglect, or 
of those who have been hardened in their sins 
through his ill example. And since all this must 
be put to his account, it may be justly inferred 
from hence, that no man can have a heavier share 
in the miseries of another state, than profane and 
wicked clerks. On all these things he ought to 
employ his thoughts frequently, who intends to 
dedicate himself to God, that so he may firmly re- 
solve not to go on with it, till he feels such seeds 
and beginnings of good things in himself, that he 
Q 3 



174 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

has reason to hope, that, through the grace and 
assistance of God, he will be an example to 
others. 

He ought more particularly to examine himself, 
whether he has that soft and gentle, that meek and 
humble, and that charitable and compassionate tem- 
per, which the Gospel does so much press upon all 
Christians ; that shined so eminently through the 
whole life of the blessed Author of it, and which 
he has so singularly recommended to all his fol- 
lowers ; and that has in it so many charms and at- 
tractives, which do not only commend those who 
have these amiable virtues, but, which is much 
more to be regarded, they give them vast advan- 
tages, in recommending the doctrine of our Saviour 
to their people. They are the true ground of that 
Christian wisdom and discretion, and of that grave 
and calm deportment, by which the clergy ought 
to carry on and maintain their authority ; a haughty 
and huffing humour, an impatient and insolent tem- 
per, a loftiness of deportment, and a peevishness of 
spirit, rendering the lives of the clergy, for the 
most part, bitter to themselves, and their labours, 
how valuable soever otherwise they may be, unac- 
ceptable and useless to their people. A clergyman 
must be prepared to bear injuries, to endure much 
unjust censure and calumny, to see himself often 
neglected, and others preferred to him, in the es- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 175 

teem of the people. He that takes all this ill, that 
resents it, and complains of it, does thereby give 
himself much disquiet; and to be sure he will, 
through his peevishness, rather increase than lessen 
that contempt, under which he is so uneasy, which 
is both better borne, and sooner overcome, by a 
meek and a lowly temper. A man of this disposi- 
tion affects no singularities, unless the faultiness of 
those about him makes his doing his duty to be a 
singularity : he does not study to lessen the value 
that his due to others, on design to increase his 
own : his low thoughts of himself make that he is 
neither aspiring, nor envying such as are ad- 
vanced : he is prepared to stay till God in his pro- 
vidence thinks fit to raise him : he studies only to 
deserve preferment, and leaves to others the wring- 
ing posts of advantage out of the hands of those 
that give them. Such a preparation of mind in a 
clergyman disposes him to be happy in whatsoever 
station he may be put, and renders the church 
happy in him : for men so moulded, even though 
their talents should be but mean, are shining lights, 
that may, perhaps, be at first despised, as men of a 
low size, that have not greatness of soul enough 
to aspire ; but when they have been seen and 
known so long, that all appears to be sincere, and 
that the principle from whence this flows is rightly 
considered, then every thing that they say or do 



176 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

must have its due weight*: the plainest and sim- 
plest things that they say have a beauty in them, 
and will be hearkened to as oracles. 

But a man that intends to prepare himself right 
for the ministry of the church, must indeed, above 
all things, endeavour to break himself to the love 
of the world, either of the wealth, the pomp, or the 
pleasures of it. He must learn to be content with 
plain and simple diet, and often even abridge that, 
by true fasting. I do not call fasting a trifling dis- 
tinction of meats ; but a lessening of the quantity, 
as well as the quality, and a contracting the time 
spent at meals, that so he may have a greater free- 
dom both in his time and in his thoughts ; that he 
may be more alone, and pray and meditate more ; 
that what he saves out of his meals, he may give 
to the poor. This is, in short, the true measure 
and right use of fasting. In cold climates, an ab- 
stinence till night may create disorders, and raise 
such a disturbance both in the appetite and in the 
digestion, that this, managed|upon the practices of 
other countries, especially in young persons, may 
really distract, instead of furthering, those who do 
it indiscreetly. In short, fasting, unless joined 
with prayer and almsgiving, is of no value in the 
sight of God. It is a vast advantage to a man to 
be broken to the niceties of his palate, to be con- 
tent with plain food, and even to dislike delicacies 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 177 

and studied dishes. This will make him easy in 
narrower circumstances, since a plain bill of fare 
is soon discharged. A lover of his appetites, and a 
slave to his taste, makes but a mean figure among 
men, and a very scurvy one among clergymen. 

This deadness to the world must raise one above 
the affectations of pomp and state, of attendance and 
high living ; which to a philosophical mind will be 
heavy, when the circumstances he is in seem to im- 
pose and force it on him : and therefore he who has 
a right sense finds it is almost all he can do, to 
bear those things which the tyranny of custom or 
false opinions put upon him ; so far is he from 
longing for them. A man that is truly dead to the 
world, would choose much rather to live in a lowly 
and narrow figure, than to be obliged to enter into 
the methods of the greatness of this world ; into 
which if the constitutions and forms of a church 
and kingdom put him, yet he feels himself in an 
unnatural and uncouth posture : it is contrary to 
his own genius and relish of things, and therefore 
he does not court nor desire such a situation ; but 
even while he is in it, he shews such a neglect of 
the state of it, and so much indifference and humi- 
lity in it, that it appears how little power those 
things have over his mind, and how little they are 
able to subdue and corrupt it. This mortified man 
must likewise become dead to all the designs and 



178 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

projects of making a family, or of raising the for- 
tunes of those that are nearly related to him : he 
must be bountiful and charitable, and though it is 
not only lawful to him, but a necessary duty in- 
cumbent on him, to make due provision for his fa* 
mily, if he has any ; yet this must be so moderated, 
that no vain nor sordid designs, no indirect nor 
unbecoming arts, may mix in it ; no excessive 
wealth nor great projects must appear ; he must be 
contented with such a proportion as may set his 
children in the way of a virtuous and liberal edu- 
cation ; such as may secure them from scandal and 
necessity, and put them in a capacity to serve God 
and their generation in some honest employment. 
But he who brings along with him a voluptuous, 
an ambitious, or a covetous mind, that is carnal 
and earthly-minded, comes asa " hireling to feed 
himself, and not the flock ; he comes to steal and 
to destroy." Upon all this, great reflection is to 
be made concerning the motives that determine one 
to offer himself to this employment. 

In the first beginnings of Christianity, no man 
could reasonably think of taking orders, unless he 
had in him the spirit of martyrdom. He was to 
look for nothing in this service, but labour and 
persecution ; he was indeed to " live of the altar," 
and that was all the portion that he was to expect 
in this world. In those days an extraordinary mea- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 179 

sure of zeal and devotion was necessary to engage 
men to so hard and difficult a province, that, how 
great soever its reward might be in another world, 
had nothing to look for in this, but a narrow pro- 
vision, and the first and largest share of the cross : 
they were the best known, the most exposed, and 
the soonest fallen upon in the persecution. But 
their services and their sufferings did so much re- 
commend that function in the succeeding ages, that 
the faithful thought they could never do enough 
to express their value for it. The church came to 
be richly endowed ; and though superstition had 
raised this out of measure, yet this extreme went 
as far to the other hand at the Reformation, when 
the church was almost stript of all its patrimony, 
and a great many churches were left so poor, that 
there was not, in most places, a sufficient, nay, 
not so much as a necessary maintenance, reserved 
for those that were to minister in holy things. But 
it is to be acknowledged that there are such rem- 
nants preserved, that many benefices of the church 
still may, and perhaps do but too much work upon 
men's corrupt principles, their ambition, and co- 
vetousness : and it is shrewdly to be apprehended, 
that of those who present themselves at the altar, 
a great part comes, as those who followed Christ, 
for the loaves ; because of the good prospect they 
have of making their fortunes by the church. 



180 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

If this point should be carried too far, it might, 
perhaps, seem to be a pitch above human nature, 
and certainly very far above the degeneracy of the 
age we live in ; I shall therefore, lay this matter 
with as large an allowance as I think it can bear. 
It is certain, that since God has made us to be a 
compound of soul and body, it is not only lawful, 
but suitable to the order of nature, for us, in the 
choice we make of the state of life that we intend 
to pursue, to consider our bodies in the next place 
after our souls ; yet we ought certainly to begin 
with our souls, with the powers and faculties that 
are in them, and consider well of what temper 
they are, and what our measure and capacity is ; 
that so we may choose such a course of life, for 
which we seem to be fitted, and in which we may 
probably do the most good to ourselves and others : 
from hence we ought to take our aim and mea- 
sures chiefly. But, in the next place, we not only 
may, but ought to consider our bodies, how they 
shall be maintained in a way suitable to that state 
of life, into which we are engaged. Therefore, 
though no man can, with a good conscience, begin 
upon a worldly account, and resolve to dedicate 
himself to the church, merely out of carnal re- 
gards ; such as an advowson in his family, a friend 
that will promote him, or any other such like 
prospect, till he has first consulted his temper and 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 181 

disposition, his talents and his capacities ; yet 
though it is not lawful to make the regards of this 
world his first consideration, and it cannot be de- 
nied to be a perfecter state, if a man should offer 
himself to the church, having whereon to support 
himself, without any assistance or reward out of 
its patrimony; and to be nearer to St. Paul's 
practice, " whose hands ministered to his neces- 
sities," and who reckoned, that in this he had 
"whereof to glory, that he was not burthensome to 
the churches :" yet it is without doubt, lawful for 
a man to design, that he may subsist in and out of 
the service of the church. But then these designs 
must be limited to a subsistence, to such a mode- 
rate proportion as may maintain one in that state 
of life ; and must not be let fly by a restless ambi- 
tion, and an insatiable covetousness, as a ravenous 
bird of prey does at all game. There must not be 
a perpetual inquiry into the value of benefices, 
and a constant importuning of such as give them : 
if laws have been made in some states restraining 
all ambitus and aspirings to civil employments, 
certainly it were much more reasonable to put a 
stop to the scandalous importunities that are every 
where complained of; and no where more visible 
and more offensive than at court. This gives a 
prejudice to men, that are otherwise inclined 
enough to search for one, that can never be re- 



182 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

moved, but by putting an effectual bar in the way 
of that scrambling for benefices and preferments ; 
•which will ever make the lay part of mankind con- 
clude, that, let us pretend what we will, covetous- 
ness and ambition are our true motives, and our 
chief vocation. It is true, the strange practices of 
many patrons, and the constitution of most courts, 
give a colour to excuse so great an indecency. 
Men are generally successful in those practices ; 
and as long as human nature is so strong, as all 
men feel it to be, it will be hard to divert them 
from a method which is so common, that to act 
otherwise would look like an affectation of singu- 
larity. And many apprehend, that they must 
languish in misery and necessity if they are want- 
ing to themselves in so general a practice. And 
indeed if patrons, but chiefly if princes would ef- 
fectually cure this disease, which gives them so 
much trouble as well as offence, they must resolve 
to distribute those benefices that are in their gifts, 
with so visible a regard to true goodness and real 
merit, and with so firm and so constant an oppo- 
sition to application and importunity, that it may 
appear that the only way to advancement is to live 
well, to study hard, to stay at home, and labour 
diligently ; and that applications by the persons 
themselves, or any set on by them, shall always 
put those back who make them. This would more 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 183 

effectually cure so great an evil, than all that can 
be said against it. One successful suitor who car- 
ries his point, will promote this disorder more than 
twenty repulses of others ; for unless the rule is 
severely carried on, every one will run into it, and 
hope to prosper as well as he, who, they see, has 
got his end in it. If those who have the disposi- 
tion of benefices, to which the cure of souls is an- 
nexed, did consider this as a trust lodged with 
them, for which they must answer to God : and 
that they shall be, in a great measure, accountable 
for the souls that may be lost, through the bad 
choice that they make, knowing it to be bad ; if, 
I say, they had this more in their thoughts, than 
so many scores of pounds as the living amounts to ; 
and thought themselves really bound, as without 
ioubt they are, to seek out good and worthy men, 
well qualified, and duly prepared, according to the 
nature of that benefice which they are to give ; 
then we might hope to see men make it their chief 
study to qualify themselves aright ; to order their 
lives, and frame their minds as they ought to do, 
and to carry on their studies with all application 
and diligence. But as long as the short methods 
of application, friendship, or interest, are more 
effectual than the long and hard way of labour 
and study, human nature will always carry men to 
r2 



184 OF THK PASTORAL CARE. 

go the surest, the easiest, and the quickest way to 
work. 

After all, I wish it were well considered by all 
clerks, what it is to run without being either called 
or sent ; and so to thrust one's self into the vine- 
yard, without staying till God, by his providence, 
puts a piece of his work in his hands. This will 
give a man a vast ease in his thoughts, and a great 
satisfaction in all his labours, if he knows that no 
practices of his own, but merely the directions of 
Providence, have put him in a post. He may well 
trust the effects of a thing to God, when the 
causes of it do plainly flow from him. And though 
this will appear to a great many a hard saying, so 
that few will be able to bear it, yet I must add 
this to the encouragement and comfort of such as 
can resolve to deliver themselves up to the conduct 
and directions of Providence, that I never yet knew 
any one of those few (too few, I confess, they 
have been,) who were possessed with this maxim, 
and that have followed it exactly, that have not 
found the fruit of it even in this world. A watch- 
ful care hath hovered over them : instruments 
have been raised up, and accidents have happened 
to them so prosperously, as if there had been a 
secret design of Heaven, by blessing them so sig- 
nally, to encourage others to follow their mea- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 185 

sures, to depend on God, to deliver themselves up 
to his care, and to wait till he opens a way for 
their being employed, and settled in such a portion 
of his husbandry, as he shall think fit to assign to 
them. 

These are preparations of mind, with which a 
clerk is to be formed and seasoned. And in order 
to this, he must read the Scriptures much, he must 
get a great deal of those passages in them that 
relate to these things, by heart, and repeat them 
often to himself; in particular, many of the most 
tender and melting Psalms, and many of the most 
comprehensive passages in the Epistles ; that by 
the frequent reflecting of these, he may fill his me- 
mory with noble notions, and right ideas of things. 
The Book of Proverbs, but chiefly Ecclesiastes, if 
he can get to understand it,, will beget in him a 
right view of the world, a just value of things, and 
a contempt of many objects that shine with a false 
lustre, but have no true worth in them. Some of 
the books taught at schools, if read afterwards, 
when one is more capable to observe the sense of 
them, may be of great use to promote this temper. 
Tully's Offices will give the mind a noble set ; all 
his philosophical discourses, but chiefly his Conso- 
lation ; which, though some critics will not allow 
to be his, because they fancy the style has not all 
the force and beauty in it that was peculiar to him, 
r 3 



1 86 OF THE PASTOKAL CARE. 

yet it is certainly the best piece of them all ; these, 
I say, give a good savour to those who read them 
much. The satirical poets, Horace, Juvenal, and 
Persius, may contribute wonderfully to give a man 
a detestation of vice, and a contempt of the com- 
mon methods of mankind ; which they have set 
out in such true colours, that they must give a 
very generous sense to those who delight in read- 
ing them often. Persius's second Satire may well 
pass for one of the best lectures in divinity. Hiero- 
cles upon Pythagoras's Verses, Plutarch's Lives, 
and, above all books of heathenism, Epictetus and 
Marcus Aurelius, contain such instructions, that 
one cannot read them too often, nor repass them 
too frequently in his thoughts. But when I speak 
of reading these books, I do not mean only to run 
through them, as one does through a book of his- 
tory, or of notions; they must be read and weighed 
with great care, till one is become a master of all 
the thoughts that are in them : they are to be often 
turned in one's mind, till he is thereby wrought 
up to some degrees of that temper which they 
propose. And as for Christian books, in order to the 
framing of one's mind aright, I shall only recom- 
mend " The Whole Duty of Man," " Dr. Sherlock 
of Death and Judgment," and Dr. Scott's books ; 
in particular, that great distinction that runs 
through them, of the means and of the ends of 



OP THE PASTORAL CAKE. 187 

religion. To all which I shall add one small book 
more, which is to me ever new and fresh, gives al- 
ways good thoughts and a noble temper : " Thomas 
a Kempis of the Imitation of Christ." By the fre- 
quent reading of these books, by the relish that 
one has in them, by the delight they give and the 
effects they produce, a man will plainly perceive, 
whether his soul is made for divine matters or not ; 
what suitableness there is between him and them ; 
and whether he is yet touched with such a sense 
of religion, as to be capable of dedicating himself 
to it. 

I am far from thinking that no man is fit to be 
a priest, that has not the temper which I have been 
describing, quite up to that height in which I have 
set it forth ; but this I will positively say, that he 
who has not the seeds of it planted in him, who 
has not these principles, and resolutions formed to 
pursue them, and to improve and perfect himself in 
them, is in no wise worthy of that holy character. 
If these things are begun in him, if they are yet 
but as a grain of mustard seed, yet if there is a life 
in them, and a vital sense of the tendencies and 
effects they must have, such a person, so moulded, 
with those notions and impressions, and such only, 
are qualified, so as to be able to say with truth 
and assurance, that they " trust they are inwardly 



188 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

moved by the Holy Ghost to undertake that of- 
fice." 

So far have I despatched the first and chief part 
of the preparation necessary before orders, The 
other branch of it relates to their learning, and to 
the knowledge that is necessary. I confess I look 
upon this as so much inferior to the other, and 
have been convinced by so much experience, that 
a great measure of piety, with a very small pro- 
portion of learning, will carry one a great way, 
that I may perhaps be thought to come as far short 
in this, as I might seem to exceed in the other. 
I will not here enter into a discourse of theological 
learning, of the measure that is necessary to make 
a complete divine, and of the methods to attain it.' 
I intend only to lay down here, that which I look 
on as the lowest degree, and as that which seems 
indispensably necessary, to one that is to be a 
priest. He must then understand the New Testa- 
ment well. This is the text of our religion, that 
which we preach and explain to others ; therefore 
a man ought to read this so often over, that he 
may have an idea of the whole book in his head, 
and pf all the parts of it. He cannot have this so 
sure, unless he understands the Greek so well, as 
to be able to find out the meaning of every period 
in it, at least of the words and phrases of it ; any 






OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 189 

book of annotations or paraphrase upon it, is a 
great help to a beginner ; Grotius, Hammond, and 
Lightfoot are the best. But the having a great 
deal of the practical and easy parts of it, such as 
relate to men's lives and their duties, such as strike 
and awaken, direct, comfort, or terrify, are much 
more necessary than the more abstruse parts. In 
short, the being able to state right the grounds of 
our hope, and the terms of salvation, and the hav- 
ing a clear and ready view of the new covenant in 
Christ Jesus, is of such absolute necessity, that it 
is a profaning of orders, and a defiling of the sanc- 
tuary, to bring any into it, that do not rightly un- 
derstand this matter in its whole extent. Bishop 
Pearson on the Creed is a book of great learning, 
and profound exactness. Dr. Barrow has opened it 
with more simplicity ; and Dr. Towerson more 
practically : one or other of these must be well 
read and considered. But when I say read, I mean 
read and read over again, so oft that one is master 
of one of these books ; he must write notes out of 
them, and make abridgments of them ; and turn 
them so oft in his thoughts, that he must tho- 
roughly understand, and well remember them. He 
must read also the Psalms over so carefully, that 
he may at least have a general notion of those di- 
vine hymns ; to which Bishop Patrick's Paraphrase 
will help to carry him. 



190 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

A system of divinity must be read with exact- 
ness. They are almost all alike. When I was 
young, Wendelin and Maresius were the two 
shortest and fullest. Here is a vast error in the 
first forming of our clergy, that a contempt has 
been cast on that sort of books ; and indeed to 
rise no higher, than to a perpetual reading over 
different systems, is but a mean pitch of learning ; 
and the swallowing down whole systems by the 
lump, has helped to possess people's minds too 
early with prejudices, and to shut them up in too 
implicit a following of others. But the throwing off 
all these books, makes that many who have read a 
great deal, yet have no entire body of divinity in 
their head ; they have no scheme or method, and 
so are ignorant of some very plain things, which 
could never have happened to them, if they had 
carefully read and digested a system into their 
memories. But because this is indeed a very low 
form ; therefore, to lead a man farther, to have a 
freer view of divinity, to examine things equally 
and clearly, and to use his own reason, by balanc- 
ing the various views that two great divisions of 
protestants have, not only in the points which 
they controvert, but in a great many others, in 
w r hich, though they agree in the same conclusions, 
yet they arrive at them by very different premises ; I 
would advise him that studies divinity, to read two 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 191 

larger bodies, writ by some eminent men of both 
sides ; and because the latest are commonly the 
best ; Turretin for the whole Calvinist hypothesis, 
and Limburgh for the Arminian, will make a man 
fully the master of all the notions of both sides. 
Or if one would see how far middle ways may be 
taken, the Theses of Saumur, or Le Blanc's The- 
ses, will complete him in that. These books well 
read, digested into abstacts, and frequently re- 
viewed or talked over by two companions in study, 
will give a man an entire view of the whole body 
of divinity. 

But by reason of that pest of atheism, that 
spreads so much among us, the foundations of re- 
ligion must be well laid : Bishop Wilkins's book of 
Natural Religion will lead one in the first steps, 
through the principles that he has laid together in 
a plain and natural method. Grotius's book of the 
Truth of the Christian Religion, with his notes 
upon it, ought to be read and almost got by heart. 
The whole controversy both of Atheism and Deism, 
the arguments both for the Old and New Testa- 
ment, are fully opened, with a great variety both 
of learning and reasoning, in Bishop Stillingneet's 
Origines Sacrse. 

There remains only to direct a student how to 
form right notions of practical matters ; and parti- 
cularly of preaching. Dr. Hammond's Practical 



192 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 






Catechism is a book of great use ; but not to be 
begun with, as too many do. It does require a 
good deal of previous study, before the force of his 
reasonings is apprehended ; but when one is ready 
for it, it is a rare book, and states the grounds of 
morality, and of our duty, upon true principles. To 
form one to understand the right method of preach- 
ing, the extent of it, and the proper ways of appli- 
cation, Bishop Sanderson, Mr. Faringdon, and Dr. 
Barrow, are the best and the fullest models. There 
is a vast variety of other sermons, which may be 
read with an equal measure of advantage and plea- 
sure. And if, from the time that one resolves to 
direct his studies towards the church, he would, 
every Lord's day, read two sermons of any good 
preacher, and turn them a little over in his 
thoughts, this would insensibly, in two or three 
years' time carry him very far, and give him a 
large view of the different ways of preaching, and 
furnish him with materials for handling a great 
many texts of Scripture when he comes to it. 

And thus I have carried my student through 
those studies, that seem to me so necessary for 
qualifying him to be an able minister of the New 
Testament, that I cannot see how any article of 
this can be well abated. It may seem strange, 
that in this whole direction, I have said nothing 
concerning the study of the fathers or church his- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 193 

tory. But I said at first, that a great distinction 
•was to be made between what was necessary to 
prepare a man to be a priest, and what was 
necessary to make him a complete and learned 
divine. 

The knowledge of these things is necessary to 
the latter, though they do not seem so necessary 
for the former : there are many things to be left 
to the prosecution of a divine's study, that there- 
fore are not mentioned here, not with any design 
to disparage that sort of learning ; for I am now 
only upon that measure of knowledge, under 
which I heartily wish that no man were put in 
priest's orders ; and therefore I have passed over 
many other things, such as the more accurate un- 
derstanding of the controversies between us and 
the church of Rome, and the unhappy disputes be- 
tween us and the dissenters of all sorts ; though 
both the one and the other have of late been 
opened with that perspicuity, that fulness of argu- 
ment, and that clearness as well as softness of 
style, that a collection of these may give a man the 
fullest instruction, that is to be found in any books 
I know. Others, and perhaps the far greater 
number, will think that I have clogged this mat- 
ter too much. But I desire these may consider 
how much we do justly reckon, that our profes- 
sion is perferable either to law or medicine. Now, 
s 



194 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

if this is true, it is not unreasonable, that since 
those who pretend to these, must be at so much 
pains, before they enter upon a practice which re- 
lates only to men's fortunes, or their persons, we 
whose labours relate to their souls and their eter- 
nal state, should be at least at some considerable 
pains, before we enter upon them. Let any 
young divine go to the chambers of a student in 
the inns of court, and see how many books he 
must read, and how great a volume of a common- 
place book he must make, he will there see through 
how hard a task one must go, in a course of many 
years, and how ready he must be in all the parts 
of it, before he is called to the bar, or can manage 
business. How exact must a physician be in ana- 
tomy, in simples, in pharmacy, in the theory of 
diseases, and in the observations and counsels of 
doctors, before he can either with honour, or a 
safe conscience, undertake practice ! He must be 
ready with all this, and in that infinite number of 
hard words, that belong to every part of it, to give 
his directions and write his bills by the patient's 
bed-side ; who cannot stay till he goes to his 
study and turns over his books. If then so long a 
course of study, and so much exactness and readi- 
ness in it, is necessary to these professions ; nay, 
if every mechanical art, even the meanest, re- 
quires a course of many years, before one can be 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 195 

a master in it, shall the noblest and the most im- 
portant of all others, that which comes from Hea- 
ven, and leads thither again ; shall that which 
God has honoured so highly, and to which laws 
and governments have added such privileges and 
encouragements, that is employed in the sublimest 
exercises, which require a proportioned worth in 
those who handle them, to maintain their value and 
dignity in the esteem of the world ; shall all this, 
I say, be esteemed so low a thing in our eyes, that 
a much less degree of time and study is necessary 
to arrive at it, than at the most sordid of all trades 
whatsoever ? And yet, after all, a man of a tole- 
rable capacity, with a good degree of application, 
may go through all this well, and exactly, in two 
years' time. I am very sure, by many an experi- 
ment I have made, that this may be done in a 
much less compass : but because all men do not go 
alike quick, have not the same force, nor the same 
application, therefore I reckon two years for it ; 
which I do thus divide : One year before deacon's 
orders, and another between them and priest's or- 
ders. And can this be thought a hard imposition ? 
Or do not those, who think thus, give great occa- 
sion to the contempt of the clergy, if they give the 
world cause to observe, that how much soever we 
may magnify our profession, yet by our practice, 
we shew that we do judge it the meanest of all 
s2 



196 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

others, which is to be arrived at upon less previ- 
ous study and preparation to it, than any other 
whatsoever ? Since I have been hitherto so minute, 
I will yet divide this matter a little lower into 
those parts of it, without which deacon's orders 
ought not to be given, and those to be reserved to 
the second year of study. To have read the New 
Testament well, so as to carry a great deal of it in 
one's memory, to have a clear notion of the several 
books of it, to understand well the nature and the 
conditions of the covenant of grace, and to have 
read one system well, so as to be master of it to 
understand the whole catechetical matter, to have 
read Wilkins and Grotius ; this, I say, is that part 
of his task, which I propose before one is made 
deacon. The rest, though much the larger, will 
go the easier, if those foundations are once well 
laid in them. And upon the article of studying the 
Scriptures, I will add one advice more. 

There are two methods in reading them; the 
one ought to be merely critical, to find out the 
meaning and coherence of the several parts of 
them, in which one runs easily through the 
greater part, and is only obliged to stop at some 
harder passages, which may be marked down, and 
learned men are to be consulted upon them : those 
that are really hard to be explained, are both few, 
and they relate to matters that are not so essential 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 197 

to Christianity ; and therefore after one has in ge- 
neral seen what is said upon these, he may put off 
the fuller consideration of that to more leisure, and 
better opportunities. But the other way of read- 
ing the Scriptures, is to be done merely with a 
view to practice, to raise devotion, to increase 
piety, and to give good thoughts and severe rules. 
In this a man is to employ himself much. This is 
a book always at hand, and the getting a great 
deal of it always by heart, is the best part of a 
clergyman's study : it is the foundation, and lays 
in the materials for all the rest. This alone may 
furnish a man with a noble stock of lively thoughts 
and sublime expressions ; and therefore it must be 
always reckoned as that, without which all other 
things amount to nothing; and the chief and main 
subject of the study, the meditation, and the dis- 
courses of a clergyman. 



CHAP. VIII. 

OF THE FUNCTIONS AND LABOURS OF 
CLERGYMEN. 

I have in the former chapter laid down the 
model and method by which a clerk is to be formed 
s 3 



198 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

and prepared : I come now to consider his course 
of life, his public functions, and his secret labours. 
In this, as well as in the former, I will study to 
consider what mankind can bear, rather than what 
may be offered in a fair idea, that is far above 
what we can hope ever to bring the world to. As 
for a priest's life and conversation, so much was 
said in the former chapter, in which, as a prepa- 
ration to orders, it was proposed what he ought 
to be, that I may now be the shorter on this 
article. 

The clergy have one great advantage, beyond all 
the rest of the world, in this respect besides all 
others, that whereas the particular callings of other 
men prove to them great distractions, and lay 
many temptations in their way, to divert them 
from minding their " high and holy calling" of be- 
ing Christians, it is quite otherwise with the cler- 
gy; the more they follow their private callings, 
they do the more certainly advance their general 
one. The better priests they are, they become 
also the better Christians : every part of their call- 
ing, when well performed, raises good thoughts, 
brings good ideas into their mind, and tends both 
to increase their knowledge, and quicken their 
sense of divine matters. A priest, therefore, is more 
accountable to God and the world for his deport- 
ment, and will be more severely accounted with, 






OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 199 

than any other person whatsoever. He is more 
watched over and observed than all others : very 
good men will be, even to a censure, jealous of 
him ; very bad men will wait for his halting, and 
insult upon it; and all sorts of persons will be 
willing to defend themselves against the authority 
of his doctrine and admonitions by this, " He says, 
but does not :'• and though our Saviour charged 
his disciples and followers, " to hear those w T ho 
sat in Moses' chair, and to observe and do what- 
soever they bid them observe, but not to do after 
their works, for they said and did not ;" the world 
will reverse this quite, and consider rather how a 
clerk lives than what he says. They see the one, 
and from it conclude what he himself thinks of 
the other; and so will believe themselves not a little 
justified, if they can say that they did no worse 
than as they saw their minister do before them. 

Therefore a priest must not only abstain from 
gross scandals, but keep at the furthest distance 
from them : he must not only not be drunk, but he 
must not sit a tippling, nor go to taverns or ale- 
houses, except some urgent occasion require it, 
and stay no longer in them, than as that occasion 
demands it. He must not only abstain from acts 
of lewdness, but from all indecent behaviour, and 
unbecoming raillery. Gaming and plays, and every 
thing of that sort, which is an approach to the va- 



200 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

nities and disorders of the world, must be avoided 
by him : and, unless the straitness of his condition 
or his necessities force it, he ought to shun all 
other cares ; such as, not only the farming of 
grounds, but even the teaching of schools, since 
these must of necessity take him off both from his 
labour and study. Such diversion as his health or 
the temper of his mind may render proper for him, 
ought to be manly, decent, and grave ; and such 
as may neither possess his mind or time too much, 
nor give a bad character of him to his people : he 
must also avoid too much familiarity with bad 
people, and the squandering away his time in too 
much vain and idle discourse. His cheerfulness 
ought to be frank, but neither excessive nor licen- 
tious. His friends and his garden ought to be his 
chief diversions, as his study and his parish ought 
to be his chief employments. He must still carry 
on his study ; making himself an absolute master 
of the few books he has, till his circumstances 
grow larger, that he can purchase more. He can 
have no pretence, if he were ever so narrow in 
the world, to say, that he cannot get, not only 
the Collects, but the Psalms, and the New Testa- 
ment, by heart, or at least a great part of them. 
If there be any books belonging to his church, 
such as Jewel's Works, and the Book of Martyrs, 
which lie tearing in many places, these he may 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 201 

read over and over again, till he is able to furnish 
himself better, I mean with a greater variety ; but, 
let him furnish himself ever so well, the reading 
and understanding the Scriptures, chiefly the 
Psalms and the New Testament, ought to be still 
his chief study, till he becomes so conversant in 
them, that he can both say many parts of them, 
and explain them without book. 

It is the only visible reason of the Jews adher- 
ing so firmly to their religion, that during the ten 
or twelve years of their education, their youth are 
so much practised to the Scriptures, to weigh every 
word in them, and get them all by heart, that it 
is an admiration to see how ready both men and 
women among them are at it : their Rabbies have 
it to that perfection, that they have the concord- 
ance of their whole Bible in their memories : 
which gives them vast advantages, when they are 
to argue with any that are not so ready as they 
are in the Scriptures. Our task is much shorter 
and easier; and it is a reproach, especially to us 
Protestants, who found our religion merely on the 
Scriptures, that we know the New Testament so 
little, which cannot be excused. 

With the study of the Scriptures, or rather as 
a part of it, comes in the study of the Fathers, as 
far as one can go. In these their Apologies and 
Epistles are chiefly to be read, for these give us 



202 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

the best views of those times ; Basil's and Chry- 
sostom's Sermons are by much the best. To 
these studies history comes in as a noble and plea- 
sant addition ; that gives a man great views of the 
providence of God, of the nature of man, and of 
the conduct of the world. This is above no man's 
capacity; and though some histories are better 
than others, yet any histories, such as one can get* 
are to be read, rather than none at all. If one 
can compass it, he ought to begin with the history 
of the church, and there at the head Josephus, and 
go on with Eusebius, Socrates, and the other his- 
torians, that are commonly bound together; and 
then go to other later collectors of ancient history, 
The history of our own church and country is to 
come next ; then the ancient Greek and Roman 
history ; and after that as much history, geogra- 
phy, and books of travels as can be had, will give 
an easy and a useful entertainment, and will fur- 
nish one with great variety of good thoughts, and of 
pleasant as well as edifying discourse. As for all 
other studies, every one must follow his incli- 
nations, his capacities, and that which he can pro- 
cure to himself. The books that we learn at 
schools are generally laid aside, with this preju- 
dice, that they were the labours as well as the 
sorrows of our childhood and education ; but they 
are among the best of books : the Greek and Ro- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 203 

man authors have a spirit in them, a force both of 
thought and expression, that later ages have not 
been able to imitate, — Buchanan only excepted, 
in whom, more particularly in his Psalms, there 
is a beauty and life, an exactness, as well as a 
liberty, that cannot be imitated, and scarce enough 
commended. The study and practice of physic, 
especially that which is safe and simple, puts the 
clergy in a capacity of doing great acts of charity, 
and of rendering both their persons and labours 
very acceptable to their people ; it will procure 
their being soon sent for by them in sickness, and 
it will give them great advantages in speaking to 
them of their spiritual concerns, when they are so 
careful of their persons ; but in this nothing that 
is sordid must mix. 

These ought to be the chief studies of the clergy. 
But to give all these their full effect, a priest that 
is much in his study ought to employ a great part 
of his time in secret and fervent prayer, for the di- 
rection and blessing of God in his labours, for the 
constant assistance of his Holy Spirit, and for a 
lively sense of divine matters, that so he may feel 
the impressions of them grow deep and strong 
upon his thoughts. This, and this only, will make 
him go on with his work without wearying, and 
be always rejoicing in it : this will make his ex- 
pressions of these things to be happy and noble, 



204 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

when he can bring them out of the " good treasure 
of his heart," that is ever full, and always warm 
with them. 

From his study, I go next to his public functions. 
He must bring his mind to an inward and feeling 
sense of those things that are prayed for in our of- 
fices : that will make him pronounce them with an 
equal measure of gravity and affection, and with a 
due slowness and emphasis. I do not love the 
theatrical way of the church of Rome, in which it 
is a great study, and a long practice, to learn in 
every one of their offices how they ought to 
compose their looks, gesture, and voice; yet a 
light wandering of the eyes, and a hasty running 
through the prayers, are things highly unbecom- 
ing ; they do very much lessen the majesty of our 
worship, and give our enemies advantage to call it 
° dead and formal," when they see plainly, that 
he who officiates is " dead and formal" in it. A 
deep sense of the things prayed for, a true recol- 
lection and attention of spirit, and a holy earnest- 
ness of soul, will give a composure to the looks, 
and a weight to the pronunciation, that will be 
tempered between affectation on the one hand, 
and levity on the other. As for preaching, I refer 
that to a chapter apart. 

A minister ought to instruct his people fre- 
quently of the nature of Baptism, that they may 



OF THE TASTORAL CARE. 205 

not go about it merely as a ceremony, as it is 
too visible the greater part do ; but that they 
may consider it as the dedicating their children to 
God, the offering them to Christ, and the holding 
them thereafter as his ; directing their chief care 
about them to the breeding them up in the " nur- 
ture and admonition of the Lord." There must 
be care taken to give them all a right notion of 
the use of godfathers and godmothers, which is a 
good institution, to procure a double security for 
the education of children ; it being to be supposed, 
that the common ties of nature and religion bind 
the parents so strongly, that if they are not mind- 
ful of these, a special vow would not put a new 
force in them : and therefore a collateral security 
is also demanded, both to supply their defects, if 
they are faulty, and to take care of the religious 
education of the infant, in case the parents should 
happen to die before that is done. And therefore 
no godfather or godmother are to be invited to 
that office, but such with whom one would trust 
the care of the education of his child ; nor ought 
any to do this office for another, but he that is 
willing to charge himself with the education of 
the child for whom he answers. But when am- 
bition or vanity, favour or presents, are the consi- 
derations upon which those sureties in baptism 
are chosen, great advantage is hereby given to 

T 



206 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

those who reject infant baptism, and the ends of 
the church in this institution are quite defeated ; 
which are, both the making the security that is 
given for the children so much the stronger, and 
the establishing an endearment and a tenderness 
between families ; this being, in its own nature, 
no small tie, how little soever it may be appre- 
hended or understood. 

Great care must be taken in the instruction of 
the youth : the bare saying the Catechism by rote 
is a small matter; it is necessary to make them 
understand the weight of every word in it : and for 
this end, every priest, that minds his duty, will find 
that no part of it is so useful to his people, as once 
every year to go through the whole Church Cate- 
chism, word by word, and make his people under- 
stand the importance of every tittle in it. This 
will be no hard labour to himself ; for after he has 
once gathered together the places of Scripture that 
relate to every article, and formed some clear il- 
lustrations and easy similes, to make it under- 
stood; his catechetical discourses, during all the 
rest of his life, will be only the going over that 
same matter again and again. By this means his 
people will come to have all this by heart ; they 
will know what to say upon it at home to their 
children ; and they will understand all his sermons 
the better, when they have once had a clear notion 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 207 

of all those terms that must run through them ; 
for those not being understood, renders them all 
unintelligible. A discourse of this sort would be 
generally of much greater edification than an after- 
noon's sermon. It should not be too long ; too 
much must not be said at a time, nor more than 
one point opened : a quarter of an hour is time 
sufficient ; for it will grow tedious, and be too 
little remembered, if it is half an hour long. This 
would draw an assembly to evening prayers, which, 
we see, are but too much neglected, when there 
is no sort of discourse or sermon accompanying 
them. And the practising this, during the six 
months of the year in which the days are long, 
would be a very effectual means both to instruct 
the people, and to bring them to a more religious 
observation of the Lord's Day, which is one of the 
most powerful instruments for the carrying on and 
advancing of religion in the world. 

With catechising, a minister is to join the pre- 
paring those whom he instructs to be confirmed ; 
which is not to be done merely upon their being 
able to say over so many words by rote. It is 
their renewing their baptismal vow in their own 
persons, which the church designs by that office ; 
and the bearing in their own minds a sense of 
their being bound immediately by that which their 
sureties then undertook for them. Now, to do 
t2 



208 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

this in such a manner as that it may make impres- 
sion, and have a due effect upon them, they must 
stay till they themselves understand what they do, 
and till they have some sense and affection to it ; 
and therefore, till one is of an age and disposition 
fit to receive the holy sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper, and desires to be confirmed, as a solemn 
preparation and qualification to it, he is not yet 
ready for it : for in the common management of 
that holy rite, it is but too visible, that of those 
multitudes that crowd to it, the far greater part 
come merely as if they were to receive the bishop's 
blessing, without any sense of the vow made by 
them, and of their renewing their baptismal en- 
gagements in it. 

As for the greatest and most solemn of all the 
institutions of Christ, the commemorating his 
death, and the partaking of it in the Lord's Sup- 
per ; this must be well explained to the people, 
to preserve them from the extremes of superstition 
and irreverence ; to raise in them a great sense of 
the goodness of God, that appeared in the death 
of Christ; of his love to us, of the sacrifice he 
once offered, and of the intercession which he still 
continues to make for us ; a share in all which* 
is there federally offered to us, upon our coming 
under engagements, to answer our part of the 
covenant, and to live according to the rules it sets 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 209 

us. On these things he ought to enlarge himself, 
not only in his sermons, but in his catechetical 
exercises, and in private discourses ; that so he 
may give his people right notions of that solemn 
part of worship, that he may bring them to delight 
in it ; and may neither fright them from it, by 
raising their apprehensions of it to a strictness 
that may terrify too much, nor encourage them in 
the too common practice of the dead and formal 
receiving, at the great festivals, as a piece of 
decency recommended by custom. 

About the time of the sacrament, every minister 
that knows any one of his parish guilty of emi- 
nent sins, ought to go and admonish him to change 
his course of life, or not to profane the table of 
the Lord ; and if private admonitions have no 
effect, then, if his sins are public and scandalous, 
he ought to deny him the sacrament ; and upon 
that he ought to take the method which is still 
left to the church to make sinners ashamed, — to 
separate them from holy things, till they have 
edified the church as much by their repentance 
and the outward profession of it, as they had for- 
merly scandalized it by their disorders. This we 
must confess, that though we have great reason 
to lament our want of the " godly discipline that 
was in the primitive church," yet we have still 
authority for a great deal more than we put in 
t3 



210 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

practice. Scandalous persons ought, and might 
be more frequently presented than they are, and 
both private and public admonitions might be 
more used than they are. There is a flatness 
in all these things among us. Some are willing 
to do nothing, because they cannot do all that 
they ought to do ; whereas the right way for pro- 
curing an enlargement of our authority, is to use 
that we have well ; not as an engine to gratify 
our own or other people's passions, not to vex 
people, nor to look after fees, more than the cor- 
rection of manners, or the edification of the people. 
If we began much with private applications, and 
brought none into our courts, till it was visible 
that all other ways had been unsuccessful, and 
that no regard was had either to persons or par- 
ties, to men's opinions or interests, we might again 
bring our courts into the esteem which they ought 
to have, but which they have almost entirely lost. 
We can never hope to bring the world to bear the 
yoke of Christ, and the order that he has appointed 
to be kept up in his church, " of noting those 
that walk disorderly, of separating ourselves from 
them, of having no fellowship, no, not so much as 
to eat with them ;" as long as we give them cause 
to apprehend, that we intend by this to bring them 
under our yoke, to subdue them to us, and to 
"rule them with a rod of iron :" for the truth is, 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 211 

mankind is so strangely compounded, that it is 
very hard to restrain ecclesiastical tyranny on the 
one hand, without running to a lawless licentious- 
ness on the other; so strangely does the world 
love extremes, and avoid a temper. 

Now, 1 have gone through the public functions 
of a priest ; and in speaking of the last of these, 
I have broken in upon the third head of his duty, 
his private labours in his parish. He understands 
little of the nature and the obligations of the 
priestly office, who thinks he has discharged it by 
performing the public appointments ; in w r hich if 
he is defective, the laws of the church, how feeble 
soever they may be as to other things, will have 
their course. But as the private duties of the 
pastoral care are things upon which the cogni- 
zance of the law cannot fall, so they are the most 
important and necessary of all others ; and the 
more praiseworthy, the freer they are, and the 
less forced by the compulsion of law. As to the 
public functions, every man has his rule ; and in 
these all are almost alike : every man, especially 
if his lungs are good, can read prayers, even in 
the largest congregation; and if he has a right 
taste, and can but choose good sermons, out of 
the many that are in print, he may likewise serve 
them well that way too. But the difference be- 
tween one man an I another shews itself more 



212 OF THK PASTORAL CARE. 

sensibly in his private labours, in his prudent de- 
portment, in his modest and discreet way of pro- 
curing respect to himself ; in his treating his 
parish, either in reconciling such differences as 
may happen to be among them, or in admonish- 
ing men of rank who set an ill example to others, 
which ought always to be done in that way which 
will probably have the best effect upon them,— 
therefore it must be done secretly, and with ex- 
pressions of tenderness and respect for their per- 
sons. Fit times are to be chosen for this : it may 
be often the best way to do it by a letter; for 
there may be ways fallen upon, of reproving the 
worst men in so soft a manner, that if they are 
not reclaimed, yet they shall not be irritated or 
made worse by it, which is but too often the effect 
of an indiscreet reproof. By this a minister may 
save the sinner's soul ; he is at least sure to save 
his own, by having discharged his duty towards 
his people. 

One of the chief parts of the pastoral care is the 
visiting the sick : not to be done barely when one 
is sent for ; he is to go as soon as he hears that 
any of his flock are ill. He is not to satisfy him- 
self with going over the office, or giving them 
the sacrament when desired : he ought to inform 
himself of their course of life, and of the temper 
of their mind, that so he may apply himself to 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 213 

them accordingly. If they are insensible, he ought 
to awaken them with the terrors of God, the judg- 
ment, and the wrath to come. He must endeavour 
to make them sensible of their sins ; particularly 
of that which runs through most mens lives, their 
forgetting and neglecting God and his service, and 
their setting their hearts so inordinately upon the 
world. He must set them on to examine their 
dealings; and make them seriously to consider, 
that they can expect no mercy from God, unless 
they restore whatsoever they may have got un- 
justly from any other, by any manner of way, 
even though their title were confirmed by law : 
he is to lay any other sins to their charge that he 
has reason to suspect them guilty of; and must 
press them to all such acts of repentance as they 
are then capable of. If they have been men of a 
bad course of life, he must give them no encou- 
ragement to hope much from this death-bed re- 
pentance; yet he is to set them to implore the 
" mercies of God in Christ Jesus/' and to do all 
they can to obtain his favour. But unless the 
sickness has been of a long continuance, and that 
the persons repentance, his patience, his piety, 
has been very extraordinary, during the course of 
it, he must be sure to give him no positive ground 
of hope, but leave him to the mercies of God : 
for there cannot be any greater treachery to souls, 



214 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

that is more fatal and more pernicious, than the 
giving quick and easy hopes, upon so short, so 
forced, and so imperfect a repentance. It not 
only makes those persons perish securely them- 
selves, but it leads all about them to destruction, 
when they see one, of whose bad life and late 
repentance they have been the witnesses, put so 
soon in hopes, nay, by some unfaithful guides, 
made sure of salvation : this must make them go 
on verj' secure in their sins, when they see how 
small a measure of repentance sets all right at 
last. All the order and justice of a nation would 
be presently dissolved, should the howlings of cri- 
minals, and their promises of amendment, w T ork 
on juries, judges, or princes : so, the hopes that 
are given to death-bed penitents must be a most 
effectual means to root out the sense of religion 
of the minds of all that see it. And therefore, 
though no dying man is to be driven to despair, 
and left to die obstinate in his sins, yet, if we love 
the souls of our people, if we set a due value on 
the blood of Christ, and if we are touched with 
any sense of the honour or interests of religion, 
we must not say any thing that may encourage 
others, who are but too apt of themselves to put 
all off to the last hour. We can give them no 
hopes from the nature of the Gospel covenant; 
yet, after all, the best thing a dying man can do 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 215 

is to repent : if he recovers, that may be the seed 
and beginning of a new life and a new nature in 
him. Nor do we know the measure of the 
"riches of God's grace and mercy ;*' how far he 
may think fit to exert it beyond the conditions 
and promises of the new covenant, at least to the 
lessening of such a person's misery in another 
state. We are sure he is not within the new 
covenant ; and since he has not repented, accord- 
ing to the tenour of it, we dare not, unless we 
betray our commission, give any hopes beyond it, 
But one of the chief cares of a minister about the 
sick ought to be, to exact of them solemn vows 
and promises of a renovation of life, in case God 
shall raise them up again ; and these ought to be 
demanded, not only in general words, but if they 
have been guilty of any scandalous disorders, or 
any other ill practises, there ought to be special 
promises made with relation to those : and upon 
the recovery of such persons, their ministers ought 
to put them in mind of their engagements, and 
use all the due freedom of admonitions and re- 
proof, upon their breaking loose from them. In 
such a case, they ought to leave a terrible denun- 
ciation of the judgments of God upon them, and 
so, at least, they acquit themselves. 

There is another sort of sick persons, who 
abound more in towns than in the country ; those 



216 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

are the troubled in mind. Of these there are two 
sorts : some have committed enormous sins, which 
kindle a storm in their consciences ; and that ought 
to be cherished, till they have completed a repent- 
ance proportioned to the nature and degree of their 
sin. If wrong has been done to another, repara- 
tion and restitution must be made, to the utmost 
of the party's power. If blood has been shed, a 
long course of fasting and prayer ; a total absti- 
nence from wine, if drunkenness gave the rise to 
it ; a making up the loss to the family on which 
it has fallen, must be enjoined. But, alas ! the 
greater part of those that think they are troubled 
in mind, are melancholy hypochondriacal people, 
— who, what through some false opinions in re- 
ligion, what through a foulness of blood, occa- 
sioned by their inactive course of life, in which 
their minds work too much, because their bodies 
are too little employed, — fall under dark and 
cloudy apprehensions, of which they can give no 
clear nor good account, This, in the greatest 
part, is to be removed by strong and chalybeate 
medicines ; yet such persons are to be much pitied, 
and a little humoured in their distemper. They 
must be diverted from thinking too much, being 
too much alone, or dwelling too long on thoughts 
that are too hard for them to master. 

The opinion that has had the chief influence in 






OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 217 

raising these distempers, has been that of praying 
by the Spirit ; when a name of thought, a melting 
in the brain, and the abounding in tender expres- 
sions, have been thought the effects of the Spirit, 
moving all those symptoms of a warm temper. 
Now, in all people, especially in persons of a me- 
lancholy disposition, that are much alone, there 
will be a great diversity, with relation to this, at 
different times. Sometimes these heats will rise 
and flow copiously, and at other times there will 
be a damp upon the brain, and a dead dryness in 
the spirits. This, to men that are prepossessed 
with the opinion now set forth, will appear as if 
God did sometimes " shine out," and at other 
times "hide his face ;" and since this last will be 
the most frequent in men of that temper, as they 
will be apt to be lifted up when they think they 
have a "fulness of the Spirit" in them, so they 
will be as much cast down when that is with- 
drawn; they will conclude from it, that " God is 
angry with them," and so reckon that they must 
be in a very dangerous condition. Upon this, a 
vast variety of troublesome scruples will arise, out 
of every thing that they either do or have done. 
If, then, a minister has occasion to treat any in 
this condition, he must make them apprehend that 
the heat or coldness of their brain is the effect of 
temper ; and flows from the different state of the- 
ir 



218 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

animal spirits, which have their diseases, their hot 
and their cold fits, as well as the blood has ; and 
therefore no measure can be taken from these, 
either to judge for or against themselves. They 
are to consider what are their principles and reso- 
lutions, and what is the settled course of their 
life : upon these they are to form sure judgments, 
and not upon any thing that is so fluctuating and 
inconstant as fits or humours. 

Another part of a priest's duty is with relation 
to them "that are without/' I mean, that are not 
of our body, which are of the side of the church 
of Rome, or among the dissenters. Other churches 
and bodies are noted for their zeal in making pro- 
selytes, for their restless endeavours, as well as 
their unlawful methods in it ; the reckoning, per- 
haps, that all will be sanctified by the increasing 
their party ; which is the true name of " making 
converts," except they become at the same time 
good men, as well as votaries to a side or cause. 
We are certainly very remiss in this on both hands ; 
little pains is taken to gain either upon papist or 
nonconformist. The law has been so much trusted 
to, that that method only was thought sure : it 
was much valued, and others at the same time 
as much neglected; and whereas at first, with- 
out force or violence, in forty years' time, popery, 
from being the prevailing religion, was reduced to 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 219 

a handful, we have now, in above twice that num- 
ber of years, made very little progress. The favour 
shewed them from our court made us seem, as it 
were, unwilling to disturb them in their religion ; 
so that we grew at last to be kind to them, to 
look on them as harmless and inoffensive neigh- 
bours, and even to cherish and comfort them : we 
were very near the being convinced of our mistake, 
by a terrible and dear-bought experience. Now 
they are again under hatches, certainly it becomes 
us, both in charity to them and in regard to our 
own safety, to study to gain them by the force of 
reason and persuasion ; by shewing all kindness 
to them, and thereby disposing them to hearken 
to the reasons that we may lay before them. We 
ought not to give over this as desperate, upon a 
few unsuccessful attempts ; but must follow them 
in the meekness of Christ, that so* we may at last 
prove happy instruments, in delivering them from 
the blindness and captivity they are kept under, 
and the idolatry and superstition they live in : we 
ought to visit them often in a spirit of love and 
charity, and to offer them conferences ; and upon 
such endeavours, we have reason to expect a bless- 
ing, at least this, of having done our duty, and so 
delivering our own souls. 

Nor are we to think, that the toleration, under 
which the law has settled the dissenters, does 
u2 



220 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

either absolve them from the obligations that they 
lay under before, by the laws of God and the 
Gospel, to maintain the unity of the church, and 
not to rend it by unjust or causeless schisms ; or 
us from using our endeavours to bring them to it, 
by the methods of persuasion and kindness : nay, 
perhaps, their being now in circumstances, that 
they can no more be forced in these things, may 
put some of them in a greater towardness to hear 
reason ; a free nation naturally hating constraint : 
and certainly the less we seem to grudge or envy 
them their liberty, we will be thereby the nearer 
gaining on the generous and better part of them, 
and the rest would soon lose heart, and look out 
of countenance, if these should hearken to us. It 
was the opinion many had of their strictness, and 
of the looseness that was among us, that gained 
them their credit, and made such numbers fall off 
from us. They have in a great measure lost the 
good character that once they had ; if to that we 
should likewise lose our bad one ; if we were 
stricter in our lives, more serious and constant in 
our labours ; and studied more effectually to re- 
form those of our communion, than to rail at 
theirs ; if we took occasion to let them see that 
we love them, that we wish them no harm, but 
good ; then we might hope, by the blessing of 
God, to lay the obligations to love and peace, to 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 221 

unity and concord before them, with such advan- 
tages, that some of them might open their eyes, 
and see at last upon how slight grounds they have 
now so long kept up such a wrangling, and made 
such a rent in the church, that both the power of 
religion in general, and the strength of the protes- 
tant religion, have suffered extremely by them. 

Thus far I have carried a clerk through his 
parish, and all the several branches of his duty to 
his people. But that all this may be well gone 
about, and indeed as the foundation upon which all 
the other parts of the pastoral care may be well 
managed, he ought frequently to visit his whole 
parish from house to house : that so he may know 
them, and be known of them. This I know will 
seem a vast labour, especially in towns, where 
parishes are large ; but that is no excuse for those 
in the country, where they are generally small ; 
and if they are larger, the going this round will 
be the longer a doing : yet an hour a day, twice 
or thrice a week, is no hard duty : and this, in 
the compass of a year, will go a great way, even 
in a large parish. In these visits, much time is 
not to be spent : a short word for stirring them 
up to mind their souls, to make conscience of their 
ways, and to pray earnestly to God, may begin it 
and almost end it. After one has asked in what 
union and peace the neighbourhood lives, and in- 
u3 



222 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

quired into their necessities, if they seem very 
poor, that so those to whom that care belongs may 
be put in mind, to see how they may be relieved. 
In this course of visiting, a minister will soon find 
out, if there are any truly good persons in his 
parish, after whom he must look with a more par- 
ticular regard. Since these are the excellent ones, 
in whom all his delight ought to be. For let their 
rank be ever so mean, if they are sincerely reli- 
gious, and not hypocritical pretenders to it, who 
are vainly puffed up with some degrees of know- 
ledge, and other outward appearances, he ought 
to consider them as the most valuable in the sight 
of God ; and, indeed, as the chief part of his care ; 
for a living dog is better than a dead lion. I know 
this way of parochial visitation is so worn out, 
that, perhaps, neither priest nor people will be 
very desirous to see it taken up. It will put the 
one to labour and trouble, and bring the other 
under a closer inspection, which bad men will no 
ways desire, nor perhaps endure. But if this 
were put on the clergy by their bishops, and if 
they explained in a sermon before they began it, 
the reason and ends of doing it ; that would re- 
move the prejudices which might arise against it. 
I confess this is an increase of labour, but that 
will seem no hard matter to such as have a right 
sense of their ordination vows, of the value of 



OK THE PASTORAL CARE. 223 

souls, and of the dignity of their function. If 
men had the spirit of their calling in them, and a 
due measure of flame and heat in carrying it on ; 
labour in it would be rather a pleasure than a 
trouble. In all other professions, those who fol- 
low them, labour in them all the year long, and 
are hard at their business every day in the week. 
All men that are well suited in a profession, that 
is agreeable to their genius and inclination, are 
really the easier and the better pleased, the more 
they are employed in it. Indeed there is no trade 
nor course of life, except ours, that does not take 
up the whole man : and shall ours only, that is 
the noblest of all others, and that has a certain 
subsistence fixed upon it, and that does not live 
by contingencies, and upon hopes, as all others 
do, make the labouring in our business an objec- 
tion against any part of our duty ? Certainly 
nothing can so much dispose the nation, to think 
on the relieving the necessities of the many small 
livings, as the seeing the clergy setting about 
their business to purpose ; this would, by the 
blessing of God, be a most effectual means of 
stopping the progress of atheism, and of the con- 
tempt that the clergy lies under ; it would go a 
great way towards the healing our schism, and 
would be the chief step that could possibly be 
made, towards the procuring to us such laws as 



224 



OF THE PASTORAL CAKE. 



are yet wanting to the completing our reforma- 
tion, and the mending the condition of so many 
of our poor brethren, who are languishing in want, 
and under great straits. 

There remains only somewhat to be added con- 
cerning the behaviour of the clergy towards one 
another. Those of a higher form in learning, dig- 
nity, and wealth, ought not to despise poor vicars 
and curates ; but, on the contrary, the poorer they 
are, they ought to pity and encourage them the 
more, since they are all of the same order, only 
the one are more happily placed than the others : 
they ought therefore to cherish those that are in 
worse circumstances, and encourage them, to come 
often to them ; they ought to lend them books, 
and to give them other assistances in order to their 
progress in learning. It is a bad thing to see a 
bishop behave himself superciliously towards any 
of his clergy, but it is intolerable in those of the 
same degree. The clergy ought to contrive w T ays 
to meet often together, to enter into a brotherly 
correspondence, and into the concerns one of an- 
other, both in order to their progress in know- 
ledge, and for consulting together in all their 
affairs. This would be a means to cement them 
into one body ; hereby they might understand 
what were amiss in the conduct of any in their 
division, and try to correct it either by private ad- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 225 

vices and endeavours, or by laying it before the 
bishop, by whose private labours, if his clergy 
would be assisting to him, and give him free and 
full informations of things, many disorders might 
be cured, without rising to public scandal, or 
forcing him to extreme censures. It is a false pity 
in any of the clergy, who see their brethren run- 
ning into ill courses, to look on and say nothing : 
it is a cruelty to the church, and may prove a 
cruelty to the person of whom they are so unsea- 
sonably tender : for things may be more easily 
corrected at first, before they have grown to be 
public, or are hardened by habit and custom. 
Upon these accounts it is of great advantage, and 
may be matter of great edification to the clergy, 
to enter into a strict union together, to meet often, 
and to be helpful to one another. But if this 
should be made practicable, they must be ex- 
tremely strict in those meetings, to observe so 
exact a sobriety, that there might be no colour 
given to censure them, as if these were merry 
meetings, in which they allowed themselves great 
liberties. It were good, if they could be brought 
to meet to fast and pray : but if that is a strain 
too high for the present age, at least they must 
keep so far within bounds, that there may be no 
room for calumny. For a disorder upon any such 
occasion, would give a wound of an extraordinary 



226 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

nature to the reputation of the whole clergy, when 
every one would bear a share of the blame, which 
perhaps belonged but to a few. Four or five such 
meetings in a summer, would neither be a great 
charge, nor give much trouble ; but the advan- 
tages that might arise out of them, would be very 
sensible. 

I have but one other advice to add ; but it is 
of a thing of great consequence, though generally 
managed in so loose and so indifferent a manner, 
that I have some reason in charity to believe, that 
the clergy make very little reflection on what they 
do in it : and that is, in the testimonials that they 
sign in favour of those that come to be ordained. 
Many have confessed to myself, that they had 
signed these upon general reports, and importu- 
nity, though the testimonial bears personal know- 
ledge. These are instead of the suffrages of the 
clergy, which in the primitive church were given 
before any were ordained. A bishop must depend 
upon them ; for he has no other way to be cer- 
tainly informed : and therefore, as it is a lie, pass- 
ed with the solemnity of hand and seal, to affirm 
any thing that is beyond one's own knowledge, so 
it is a lie made to God and the church, since the 
design of it is to procure orders. So that if a 
bishop, trusting to that, and being satisfied of the 
knowledge of one that brings it, ordains an unfit 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 227 

and unworthy man, they that signed it are deeply 
and chiefly involved in the guilt of his laying 
hands suddenly upon him. Therefore every priest 
ought to charge his conscience in a deep particu- 
lar manner, that so he may never testify for any 
one, unless he knows his life to be so regular, and 
believes his temper to be so good, that he does 
really judge him a person fit to be put in holy 
orders. These are all the rules that do occur to 
me at present. 

In performing these several branches of the duty 
of a pastor, the trouble will not be great, if he is 
truly a good man, and delights in the service of 
God, and in doing acts of charity. The pleasure 
will be unspeakable; first, that of the conscience, 
in this testimony that it gives, and the quiet and 
joy w r hich arises from the sense of one's having 
done his duty : and then it can scarce be supposed 
but, by all this, some will be wrought on ; some 
sinners will be reclaimed ; bad men will grow 
good, and good men will grow better. And if a 
generous man feels, to a great degree, the plea- 
sure of having delivered one from misery, and of 
making him easy and happy, how sovereign a joy 
must it be, to a man that believes there is another 
life, to see that he has been an instrument to 
rescue some from endless misery, and to further 
others in the w T ay to everlasting happiness ? And 



228 OF THE FAST0RAL CARE. 

the more instances he sees of this, the more do 
his joys grow upon him. This makes life happy, 
and death joyful to such a priest; for he is not 
terrified with those words, " Give an account of 
thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer 
steward :" he knows his reward shall be full, 
pressed down, and running over. He is but too 
happy in those " spiritual children" whom he has 
"begot in Christ;" he looks after those as the 
chief part of his care, and as the principal of his 
flock ; and is so far from aspiring, that it is not 
without some uneasiness that he leaves them, if he 
is commanded to arise to some higher post in the 
church. 

The troubles of this life, the censures of bad 
men, and even the prospect of a persecution, are 
no dreadful things to him that has this " seal of 
his ministry ;" and this comfort within him, that 
he has not " laboured in vain," nor "run and 
fought as one that beats the air : he sees the 
travail of his soul, and is satisfied, when he finds 
that God's work prospers in his hand." This 
comforts him in his sad reflections on his own past 
sins, that he has been an instrument of advancing 
God's honour, of saving souls, and of propagating 
his Gospel ; since to have saved one soul, is worth 
a man's coming into the world, and richly worth 
the labours of his whole life. Here is a subject 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 229 

that might be easily prosecuted by many warm 
and lively figures : but I now go on to the last 
article relating to this matter. 



CHAP. IX. 

CONCERNING PREACHING. 

The world naturally runs to extremes in every 
thing. If one sect or body of men magnify preach- 
ing too much, another carries that to another ex- 
treme, of decrying it as much. It is certainly a 
noble and a profitable exercise, if rightly gone 
about ; of great use both to priest and people, by 
obliging the one to much study and labour, and 
by setting before the other full and copious dis- 
coveries of divine matters, opening them clearly, 
and pressing them weightily upon them. It has 
also now gained so much esteem in the world, 
that a clergyman cannot maintain his credit, nor 
bring his people to a constant attendance on the 
worship of God, unless he is happy in these per- 
formances. 

I will not run out into the history of preaching, 
to shew how late it was before it was brought into 
the church, and by what steps it grew up to the 
pitch it is now at ; how long it was before the 



230 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

Roman church used it, and in how many different 
shapes it has appeared. Some of the first patterns 
we have are the best : for as Tully began the 
Roman eloquence, and likewise ended it, no m^n 
being able to hold up to the pitch to which he 
raised it, — so St. Basil and St. Chrysostom 
brought preaching from the dry pursuing of alle- 
gories that had vitiated Origen, and from the ex- 
cessive affectation of figures and rhetoric that 
appears in Nazianzen, to a due simplicity, — a 
native force and beauty, — having joined to the 
plainness of a clear but noble style, the strength 
of reason, and the softness of persuasion. Some 
were disgusted at this plainness, and they brought 
in a great deal of art into the composition of ser- 
mons. Mystical applications of Scripture grew to 
be better liked than clear texts ; an accumula- 
tion of figures, a cadence in the periods, a playing 
upon the sounds of words, a loftiness of epithets, 
and often an obscurity of expression, were accord- 
ing to the different tastes of the several ages run 
into. Preaching has passed through many differ- 
ent forms among us, since the Reformation ; but, 
without flattering the present age, or any person 
now alive, too much, it must be confessed, that it 
is brought of late to a much greater perfection 
than it was ever before at among us. It is cer- 
tainly brought nearer the pattern that St. Chry- 



OF THE TASTORAL CARE. 231 

sostom has set, or perhaps carried beyond it. Our 
language is much refined, and we have returned 
to the plain notions of simple and genuine rhe- 
toric. 

We have so vast a number of excellent perform- 
ances in print, that if a man has but a right under- 
standing of religion, and a true relish of good 
sense, he may easily furnish himself this way. 
The impertinent way of dividing texts is laid 
aside ; the needless setting out of the originals, 
and the vulgar version, is worn out. The trifling 
shews of learning in many quotations of passages, 
that very few could understand, do no more flat 
the auditory. Pert wit and luscious eloquence 
have lost their relish : so that sermons are re- 
duced to the plain opening the meaning of the text, 
in a few short illustrations cf its coherence with 
what goes before and after, and of the parts cf 
which it is composed : to that is joined the clear 
stating of such propositions as arise out of it, in 
their nature; truth, and reasonableness; by which 
the hearers may form clear notions of the several 
parts of religion, such as are best suited to their 
capacities and apprehensions : to all which appli- 
cations are added, tending to the reproving, direct- 
ing, encouraging, or comforting the hearers ac- 
cording to the several occasions* that are offered. 

This is, indeed, all that can truly be intended 
x2 



232 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

in preaching : to make some portions of Scripture 
to be rightly understood ; to make those truths 
contained in them to be more fully apprehended ; 
and then to lay the matter home to the consciences 
of the hearers, so directing all to some good and 
practical end. In the choice of the text, care is 
to be taken not to choose texts that seem to have 
humour in them ; or that must be long wrought 
upon, before they are understood. The plainer a 
text is in itself, the sooner it is cleared, and the 
fuller it is of matter of instruction ; and therefore 
such ought to be chosen to common auditories. 
Many will remember the text, that remember no- 
thing else ; therefore such a choice should be made, 
as may at least put a weighty and speaking sen- 
tence of the Scriptures upon the memories of the 
people. A sermon should be made for a text, and 
not a text found out for a sermon ; for, to give 
our discourses weight, it should appear that we 
are led to them by our texts. Such sermons will 
probably have much more efficacy than a general 
discourse, before which a text seems only to be 
read as a decent introduction, but to which no 
regard is had in the progress of it. Great care 
should be also had, both in opening the text and 
of that which arises from it, to illustrate them by 
concurrent passages of Scripture. A little of this 
ought to be in every sermon, and but a little ; for 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 233 

the people are not to be overcharged with too 
much of it at a time ; and this ought to be done 
with judgment, — and not be made a bare concord- 
ance exercise, of citing Scriptures, that have the 
same words, though not to the same purpose, and 
in the same sense. A text being opened, then 
the point upon which the sermon is to run is to 
be opened ; and it will be the better heard and 
understood, if there is but one point in a sermon ; 
so that one head, and only one, is well stated, and 
fully set out. In this, great regard is to be had 
to the nature of the auditory, that so the point 
explained may be in some measure proportioned 
to them. Too close a thread of reason, too great 
an abstraction of thought, too sublime and too 
metaphysical a strain, are suitable to very few au- 
ditories, if to any at all. 

Things must be put in a clear light, and brought 
out in as short periods and in as plain words as 
may be. The reasons of them must be made as 
sensible to the people as is possible : as in virtues 
and vices, their tendencies and effects, their being 
suitable and unsuitable to our powers, to both souls 
and bodies, to the interests of this life as well as 
the next ; and the good or evil that they do to 
human societies, families, and neighbourhoods, 
ought to be fully and frequently opened. In set- 
ting these forth, such a measure is to be kept, 
x 3 



234 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

that the hearers may perceive that things are not 
strained, in the way of a declamation, into forced 
characters ; but that they are set out, as truly 
they are, without making them seem better by- 
imaginary perfections, or worse by an undue ag- 
gravation : for the carrying those matters beyond 
the plain observation of mankind, makes that the 
whole is looked on as a piece of rhetoric ; the 
preacher seeming to intend rather to shew his 
skill, in raising his subject too high, or running 
it down too low, than to lay before them the 
native consequences of things; and that which, 
upon reflection, they may be all able to perceive 
is really true. Virtue is so good in itself, that it 
needs no false paint to make it look better ; and 
vice is so bad, that it can never look so ugly as 
when shewn in its own natural colours : so that 
an undue sublime in such descriptions does hurt, 
and can do no good. 

When the explanatory part of the sermon is 
over, the application comes next : and here great 
judgment must be used, to make it fall the hea- 
viest, and lie the longest, upon such particulars as 
may be within the compass of the auditory. Di- 
rections concerning a high devotion, to a stupid, 
ignorant company, — or of generosity and bounty, 
to very poor people, — against pride and ambition, 
to such as are dull and low-minded, — are ill 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 235 

suited, and so must have little effect upon them. 
Therefore care must be taken that the application 
be useful and proper ; that it make the hearers 
apprehend some of their sins and defects, and see 
how to perform their duty ; that it awaken them 
to it, and direct them in it : and therefore the 
most common sins, — such as men's neglecting 
their duty to God, in the several branches of it, — 
their setting their hearts inordinately upon the 
world,- — their lying in discourse, but chiefly in 
bargainings, — their evil- speaking, and their hatred 
and malice, — ought to be very often brought in. 
Some one or other of these ought to be in every 
application that is made, by which they may see, 
that the whole design of religion lies against them. 
Such particular sins, swearing, drunkenness, or 
lewdness, as abound in any place, must likewise 
be frequently brought in here. The application 
must be clear and short, very weighty, and free 
of every thing that looks like the affectations of 
wit and eloquence ; here the preacher must be 
all heart and soul, designing the good of his peo- 
ple, The whole sermon is directed to this : there- 
fore, as it is fit that the chief point which a sermon 
drives at should come often over and over, that so 
the hearers may never lose sight of it, but keep 
it still in view ; so, in the application, the text 
must be shewn to speak it ; all the parts of the 



236 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

explanation must come in to enforce it. The 
application must be opened in the several views 
that it may have ; but those must be chiefly in- 
sisted on, that are most suitable both to the capa- 
cities and the circumstances of the people : and 
in conclusion, all ought to be summed up in a 
weighty period or two ; and some other signal 
passages of the Scriptures relating to it may be 
sought for, that so the matter may be left upon 
the auditory in the most solemn manner possible. 

Thus I have led a preacher through the com- 
position of his sermon ; I will next lay before 
him some particulars relating to it. The shorter 
sermons are, they are generally both better heard 
and better remembered. The custom of an hour's 
length forces many preachers to trifle away much 
of the time, and to spin out their matter, so as to 
hold out. So great a length does also flat the 
hearers, and tempt them to sleep ; especially 
when, as is usual, the first part of the sermon is 
languid and heavy. In half an hour, a man may 
lay open his matter in its full extent, and cut off 
those superfluities which come in only to lengthen 
the discourse ; and he may hope to keep up the 
attention of his people all the while. As to the 
style, sermons ought to be very plain. The 
figures must be easy ; not mean, but noble, and 
brought in upon design to make the matter better 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 237 

understood. The words in a sermon must be 
simple, and in common use ; not savouring of the 
schools, nor above the understanding of the peo- 
ple. All long periods, such as carry two or three 
different thoughts in them, must be avoided ; for 
few hearers can follow or apprehend these : nice- 
ties of style are lost before a common auditory. 
But if an easy simplicity of style should run 
through the whole composition, it should take 
place most of all in the explanatory part ; for the 
thing being there offered to be understood, it 
should be stripped of all garnishing : definitions 
should not be offered in the terms or method that 
logic directs. In short, a preacher is to fancy 
himself as in the room of the most unlearned man 
in his whole parish ; and therefore he must put 
such parts of his discourse as he would have all 
understand, in so plain a form of words, that it 
may not be beyond the meanest of them. This 
he will certainly study to do, if his desire is to 
edify them, rather than to make them admire 
himself as a learned and high-spoken man. 

But ia the applicatory part, if he has a true 
taste of eloquence, and is a master at it, he is to 
employ it all, in giving sometimes such tender 
touches as may soften, and deeper gashes, such as 
may awaken his hearers. A vain eloquence here 
is very ill placed : for if that can be borne any 



238 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

where, it is in illustrating the matter ; but all 
must be grave where one would persuade ; the 
most natural, but the most sensible expressions 
come in best here. Such an eloquence as makes 
the hearers look grave, and as it were out of 
countenance, is the properest. That which makes 
them look lively, and as it were, smile upon one 
another, may be pretty ; but it only tickles the 
imagination, and pleases the ear ; whereas that 
which goes to the heart, and wounds it, makes 
the hearer rather look down, and turn his thoughts 
inward upon himself. For it is certain that a 
sermon, the conclusion whereof makes the audi- 
tory look pleased, and sets them all a talking one 
to another, was either not right spoken, or not 
right heard; it has been fine, and has probably 
delighted the congregation, rather than edified it. 
But that sermon that makes every one go away 
silent and grave, and hastening to be alone, to 
meditate or pray over the matter of it in secret, 
has had its true effect. 

He that has a taste and genius for eloquence, 
must improve it by reading Quintilian, and Tully's 
Books of Oratory, and by observing the spirit and 
method of Tully's Orations : or if he can enter 
into Demosthenes, there he will see a much better 
pattern ; there being a simplicity, a shortness, and 
a swiftness and rapidity in him, that could not be 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 239 

heard without putting his auditors into a great 
commotion. All our modern books upon these 
subjects are so far short of those great originals, 
that they can bear no compaiison: yet F. Rapin's 
little Book of Eloquence is by much the best, only 
he is too short. Tully has so fully opened all the 
topics of invention, that a man who has read him 
will, if he has any invention of his own, and if he 
knows thoroughly his matter, rather have too much 
than too little in his view, upon every subject that 
he treats. This is a noble study, and of great use 
to such as have judgment to mana.ge it; for arti- 
ficial eloquence, without a flame within, is like ar- 
tificial poetry ; all its productions are forced and 
unnatural, and in a great measure ridiculous. Art 
helps and guides nature ; but if one was not born 
with this flame, art will only spoil him, make him 
luscious and redundant. To such persons, and, 
indeed, to all that are not masters of the body 
of divinity and of the Scriptures, I should much 
rather recommend the using other men's sermons, 
than the making any of their own. But in the 
choice of these great judgment must be used. 
One must not take an author that is too much 
above himself ; for by that, compared with his 
ordinary conversation, it will but too evidently 
appear, that he cannot be the author of his own 
sermons ; and that w r ill make both him and them 



240 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

lose too much of their weight. He ought also 
to put those printed sermons out of that strength 
and closeness of style, which looks very well 
in print, but is too stiff, especially for a com- 
mon auditory. He may reverse the method a 
little, and shorten the explanations, that so he 
may retain all that is practical : and that a man 
may form himself to preaching, he ought to take 
some of the best models, and try what he can do 
upon a text handled by them, without reading 
them, and then compare his work with theirs; 
this will more sensibly, and without putting him 
to the blush, model him to imitate, or, if he can, 
to excel the best patterns : and by this method, if 
he will restrain himself for some time, and follow 
it close, he may come to be able to go without 
such crutches, and to work without patterns. Till 
then, I should advise all to make use of other men's 
sermons, rather than to make any of their own. 

The nation has got into so good a taste of ser- 
mons, from the vast number of those excellent 
ones that are in print, that a mean composition 
will be very ill heard ; and therefore it is an un- 
seasonable piece of vanity, for any to offer their 
own crudities, till they have well digested and 
ripened them. I wish the majesty of the pulpit 
were more looked to ; and that no sermons were 
offered from thence, but such as should make the 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 241 

hearers both the better and the wiser, the more 
knowing, and the more serious. 

In the delivering of sermons, a great composure 
of gesture and behaviour is necessary, to give them 
weight and authority. Extremes are bad here, as 
in every thing else. Some affect a light and flip- 
pant behaviour, and others think that wry faces 
and a tone in the voice will set off the matter. 
Grave and composed looks, and a natural, but 
distinct pronunciation, will always have the best 
effects. The great rule, which the masters of rheto- 
ric press much, can never be enough remembered ; 
that to make a man speak well, and pronounce with 
aright emphasis, he ought thoroughly to understand 
all that he says, be fully persuaded of it, and bring 
himself to have those affections which he desires to 
infuse into others. He that is inwardly persuaded 
of the truth of what he says, and that has a con- 
cern about it in his mind, will pronounce with a 
natural vehemence, that is far more lively than 
all the strains that art can lead him to. An orator, 
if we hearken to him, must be an honest man, 
and speak always on the side of truth, and study 
to feel all that he says ; and then he will speak it 
so as to make others feel it likewise. And there- 
fore such as read their sermons, ought to practise 
reading much in private, and read aloud, that so 
their own ear and sense may guide them, to know 

Y 



242 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

where to raise or quicken, soften or sweeten their 
voice, and when to give an articulation of autho- 
rity, or of conviction: where to pause, and where 
to languish. We plainly see by the stage, what 
a force there is in pronunciation : the best compo- 
sitions are murdered, if ill spokea ; and the worst 
are acceptable when well said. In tragedies, 
rightly pronounced and acted, though we know 
that all is a fable and fiction, the tender parts do 
so melt the company, that tears cannot be stop- 
ped, even by those who laugh at themselves for it. 
This shews the power of apt words, and a just 
pronunciation : but because this depends, in a 
great measure, upon the present temper of him 
that speaks, and the lively disposition in which he 
is, therefore he ought, by much previous serious- 
ness, and by earnest prayer to God, to endeavour 
to raise his mind to as warm a sense of the things 
he is to speak of as possibly he can, that so his ser- 
mons may make deep impressions on his hearers. 

This leads me to consider the difference that is 
between the reading and speaking of sermons. 
Reading is peculiar to this nation, and is endured 
in no other. It has, indeed, made that our ser- 
mons are more exact, and so it has produced to us 
many volumes of the best that are extant ; but, 
after all, though some few read so happily, pro- 
nounce so truly, and enter so entirely into those 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 243 

affections which they recommend, that in them 
we see both the correctness of reading, and the 
seriousness of speaking sermons, yet every one is 
not so happy. Some, by hanging their heads 
perpetually over their notes, by blundering as 
they read, and by a cursory running over them, 
do so lessen the matter of their sermons, that as 
they are generally read with very little life or 
affection, so they are heard with as little regard 
or esteem. Those who read, ought certainly to 
be at a little more pains than for most part they 
are, to read true, to pronounce with an emphasis, 
and to raise their heads, and direct their eyes to 
their hearers ; and if they practised more alone 
the just way of reading they might deliver their 
sermons with much more advantage. Man is a 
low sort of creature ; he does not, nay, nor the 
greater part cannot, consider things in themselves, 
without those little seasonings that must recom- 
mend them to their affections. That a discourse 
be heard with any life, it must be spoken with 
some ; and the looks and motions of the eye do 
carry in them such additions to what is said, that 
where these do not all concur, it has not all the 
force upon them that otherwise it might have : 
besides that, the people, who are too apt to cen- 
sure the clergy, are easily carried into an obvious 
y 2 



244 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

reflection on reading, that it is an effect of lazi- 
ness. 

In pronouncing sermons, there are two ways. 
The one is when a whole discourse is got by heart, 
and delivered word for word, as it was writ down. 
This is so vast a labour, that it is scarce possible 
that a man can be able to hold up long to it : yet 
there is an advantage even in this to beginners ; 
it fills their memories with good thoughts and re- 
gular meditations : and when they have got some 
of the most important of their sermons by heart in 
so exact a manner, they are thereby furnished with 
topics for discourse. And therefore there are, at 
least, two different subjects, on which I wish all 
preachers would be at the pains to form sermons 
well in their memories. The one is the grounds 
of the covenant of grace, of both sides, — God's 
offers to us in Christ, and the conditions that he 
has required of us, in order to our reconciliation 
with him. This is so important a point, in the 
whole course of our ministry, that no man ought 
to be to seek in the opening or explaining it : and 
therefore, that he may be ripe in it, he ought to 
have it all rightly laid in his memory, not only as 
to the notions of it, but to have such a lively de- 
scription and illustration of it all, as to be able to 
speak of it sensibly, fully, and easily, upon all 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 245 

occasions. Another subject, in which every minis- 
ter ought also to be well furnished, is concerning 
death and judgment; that so, when he visits the 
sick, and, as is common, that the neighbours come 
in, he may be able to make a grave exhortation, 
in weighty and fit words, upon those heads. Less 
than this, I think no priest ought to have in his 
memory. But, indeed, the more sermons a young 
beginner gets by heart, he has still thereby the 
more discourse ready upon those heads ; for though 
the whole contexture of the sermon will stick no 
longer than he has occasion for it, yet a great deal 
will stay with him ; the idea of the whole, with the 
most important parts of it, will remain much longer. 
But now I come to propose another method of 
preaching, by which a priest may be prepared, 
after a right view of his matter, a true under- 
standing his text, and a digesting of his thoughts 
upon it into their natural and proper order, to 
deliver these both more easily to himself, and 
with a better effect both upon himself and his 
hearers. To come at this, he must be for some 
years at a great deal of pains to prepare himself 
to it ; yet when that is over, the labour of all the 
rest of his life, as to those performances, will be- 
come very easy and very pleasant to him. The 
preparations to this must be these : first, he must 
read the Scriptures very exactly, — he must have 
y 3 



246 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

great portions of them by heart ; and he must also, 
in reading them, make a short concordance of 
them in his memory; that is, he must lay toge- 
ther such passages as belong to the same matter : 
to consider how far they agree, or help to illustrate 
one another, and how the same thing is differently 
expressed in them ; and what various ideas, or 
ways of recommending a thing, rise out of this 
concordance. Upon this a man must exercise 
himself much, draw notes of it, and digest it well 
in his thoughts. Then he must be ready with the 
whole body of divinity in his head ; he must know 
what parts come in as objections to be answered, 
where difficulties lie, how one part coheres with 
another, and gives it light. He must have this 
very current in his memory, that he may have 
things lie before him in one full view ; and upon 
this he is also to work, by making tables, or using 
such other helps as may lay matters clearly before 
him. He is, more particularly, to lay before him 
a system of morality, of all virtues and vices, and 
of all the duties that arise out of the several rela- 
tions of mankind ; that he may have this matter 
very full in his eye, and know what are the Scrip- 
tures that belong to all the parts of it. He is 
also to make a collection of ail such thoughts, as 
he finds either in the books of the ancient philoso- 
phers, (where Seneca will be of great use to him,) 



OF THE PASTGKAL CARE. 1247 

or of Christian authors. He is to separate such 
thoughts as are forced, and that do become rather 
a strained declamation, made only to please, than 
a solid discourse, designed to persuade. All these 
he must gather, or at least such a number of them, 
as may help him to form a distinct notion of that 
matter, so as to be able both to open it clearly, 
and to press it with affection and vehemence. 

These are the materials that must be laid toge- 
ther ; the practice in using them comes next. He, 
then, that would prepare himself to be a preacher 
in this method, must accustom himself to talk 
freely to himself, to let his thoughts flow from 
him, especially when he feels an edge and heat 
upon his mind ; for then happy expressions will 
come in his mouth, things will ventilate and open 
themselves to him, as he talks them thus in a 
soliloquy to himself. He must also be writing 
many essays upon all sorts of subjects ; for by 
writing he will bring himself to a correctness both 
in thinking and in speaking : and thus, by a hard 
practice for two or three years, a man may render 
himself such a master in this matter, that he can 
never be surprised, nor will new thoughts ever dry 
up upon him. He must talk over to himself the 
whole body of divinity ; and accustom himself to 
explain, and prove, to clear objections, and to ap- 
ply every part of it to some practical use. He 



248 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

must go through human life, in all the ranks and 
degrees of it, and talk over all the duties of these ; 
consider the advantages or disadvantages in every 
one of them, their relation to one another, the 
morality of actions, the common virtues and vices 
of mankind ; more particularly the duties of Chris- 
tians, their obligations to meekness and humility, 
to forgive injuries, to relieve the poor, to bear the 
cross, to be patient and contented in every state of 
life, to pray much and fervently, to rejoice ever in 
God, and to be always praising him, and most par- 
ticularly to be applying seriously to God through 
Jesus Christ, for mercy and pardon, and for his 
grace and Spirit ; to be worshipping him devoutly 
in public, and to be delighting frequently to com- 
memorate the death of Christ, and to partake of 
the benefits of it. All these, I say, he must talk 
over and over again to himself; he must study to 
give his thoughts all the heat and flight about them 
that he can : and if, in these his meditations, happy 
thoughts and noble and tender expressions do at 
any time offer themselves, he must not lose them, 
but write them down : and in his pronouncing 
over such discourses to himself, he must observe 
what words sound harsh, and agree ill together ; 
for there is a music in speaking, as well as in 
singing, which a man, though not otherwise cri- 
tical in sounds, will soon discover. By a very few 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 249 

years' practice of two or three such soliloquies a 
day, chiefly in the morning, when the head is clear- 
est, and the spirits are liveliest, a man will contract 
a great easiness both in thinking and speaking. 

But the rule I have reserved last is the most 
necessary of all, and without it all the rest will 
never do the business; it is this: That a man 
must have in himself a deep sense of the truth 
and power of religion ; he must have a life and 
flame in his thoughts with relation to those sub- 
jects : he must have felt in himself those things 
which he intends to explain and recommend to 
others. He must observe narrowly the motions 
of his own mind, the good and bad effects that the 
several sorts of objects he has before him, and 
affections he feels within him, have upon him ; 
that so he may have a lively heat in himself when 
he speaks of them, and that he may speak in so 
sensible a manner, that it may be almost felt that 
he speaks froai his heart. There is an authority 
in the simplest things that can be said, when they 
carry visible characters of genuineness in them. 
Now, if a man can carry on this method, and by 
much meditation and prayer draw down divine 
influences, which are always to be expected, when 
a man puts himself in the way of them, and pre- 
pares himself for them; he will often feel, that 
" while he is musing, a fire is kindled within 



250 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

him," and then he will " speak with authority,' ' 
and without constraint ; his thoughts will be true, 
and his expressions free and easy. Sometimes 
this fire will carry him, as it were, out of himself, 
and yet without any thing that is frantic or enthu- 
siastical. Discourses brought forth with a lively 
spirit and heat, where a composed gesture, and 
the proper motions of the eye and countenance, 
and the due modulations of the voice concur, will 
have all the effect that can be expected from any 
thing that is below immediate inspiration : and as 
this will be of use to the hearers, so it will be of 
vast use to the preacher himself, to oblige him to 
keep his heart always in good tune and temper ; 
not to suffer irregular and forbidden appetites, pas- 
sions, or projects, to prepossess his mind : these 
will both divert him from going on in the course 
of meditation, in which a man must continue 
many years, till all his thoughts are put in order, 
polished, and fixed ; they will make him likewise 
speak much against the grain, with an aversion 
that will be very sensible to himself, if not to his 
hearers : if he h?,s guilt upon him, if his conscience 
is reproaching him, and if any ill practices are 
putting a damp upon that good sense of things 
that makes his thoughts sparkle upon other occa- 
sions, and gives him an air and authority, a tone 
of assurance, and a freedom of expression. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 251 

Such a method as I have been opening, has had 
great success with all those that I have known to 
have tried it. And though every one has not that 
swiftness of imagination, nor that clearness of ex- 
pression that others may have, so that in this men 
may differ, as much as they do in their written 
compositions ; yet every man by this method may 
rise far above that which he could ever have at- 
tained to any other way : it will make even exact 
compositions easier to him, and him much readier 
and freer at them. But great care must be used 
by him, before he suffers himself to speak with the 
liberty here aimed at in public : he must try him- 
self at smaller excursions from his fixed thoughts, 
especially in the applicatory part, where flame and 
life are more necessary, and where a mistaken 
word or an unfinished period are less observed, 
and sooner forgiven, than in the explanatory part, 
where men ought to speak more severely. And 
as one succeeds in some short excursions, he may 
give himself a further scope : and so, by a long 
practice, he will at last arrive at so great an easi- 
ness both in thinking and speaking, that a very 
little meditation will serve to lay open a text to 
him, with all the matter that belongs to it, toge- 
ther with the order in which it ought to be both ex- 
plained and applied. And when a man has attained 
to a tolerable degree in this, he is then the master 



252 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE 



of his business ; he is master also of much time, 
and of many noble thoughts, and schemes that 
will arise out of them. 

This I shall prosecute no further; for if this 
opening of it does not excite the reader to follow 
it a little, no enlargements I can offer upon it will 
work upon him. But to return to preaching, and 
so conclude this chapter. He that intends truly to 
''preach the Gospel," and not himself, — he that 
is more concerned to do good to others, than to 
raise his own fame, or to procure a following to 
himself, — and that makes this the measure of all 
his meditations and sermons, that he may put 
things in the best light, and recommend them with 
the most advantage to his people, — that reads the 
Scriptures much, and meditates often upon them, 
— that prays earnestly to God for direction in his 
labours, and for a blessing upon them, — that di- 
rects his chief endeavours to the most important 
and most indispensable, as well as the most unde- 
niable duties of religion, and chiefly to the inward 
reformation of his hearers' hearts, which will cer- 
tainly draw all other lesser matters after it, — and 
that does not spend his time, nor his zeal, upon 
lesser or disputable points, — this man, so made 
and so moulded, cannot miscarry in his work. He 
will certainly succeed to some degree : " the word 
spoken by him shall not return again ■:" he shall 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 253 

have his crown, and his reward from his labours : 
and, to say all that can be said in one word, with 
St. Paul, " He shall both save himself and them 
that hear him." 



THE CONCLUSION. 

I have now gone over all that seemed to me 
most important upon this head, " Of the Pastoral 
Care," with as much shortness and clearness as I 
could ; so now I am to conclude. The discourse 
may justly seem imperfect, since I say nothing 
concerning the duties incumbent on bishops ; but 
I will upon this occasion say very little on that 
head. The post I am in gives me a right to teach 
priests and deacons their duty ; therefore I thought, 
that without any great presumption I might ven- 
ture on it : but I have been too few years in 
the high order, to take upon me to teach them, 
from whom I shall ever be ready to learn. This 
is certain ; that since, as was formerly said, the 
inferior orders subsist in the superior, bishops must 
still be under all the obligations of priests. They 
are, then, take the matter at lowest, bound to live, 
to labour, and to preach, as well as they. But 



254 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

why are they raised to a higher rank of dignity 
and order, an increase of authority, and an extent 
of cure? And why have Christian princes and 
states given them great revenues, and an accession 
of secular honours ? All this must certainly im- 
port their obligation to labour more eminently, 
and to lay themselves out more entirely in the 
" work of the Gospel ;" in which, if the great- 
est encouragements and assistances, the highest 
dignities and privileges belong to them, then, ac- 
cording to our Saviour's example and decision, 
" who came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister/' and who declared, that " he who is first 
shall be last," and " he who is the greatest must 
be the servant of all;" then, I say, the higher that 
any are raised in this ministry, they ought to lay 
themselves out the more entirely in it, and labour 
the more abundantly. And as our obligations to 
Christ and his church tie us to a greater zeal and 
diligence, and to a more constant application of 
our care and thoughts, so the secular supports of 
our honours and revenues were given us, to enable 
us to go through with that extent of care and 
jurisdiction that lies upon us. We are not only 
watchmen to watch over the flock, but likewise 
over the watchmen themselves. We keep the door 
of the sanctuary ; and will have much to answer 
for, if through our remissness or feeble easiness, if 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 255 

by trusting the examination of those we ordain to 
others, and yielding to intercession and importu- 
nity, we bring any into the service of the church 
who are not duly qualified for it. In this we must 
harden ourselves, and become inexorable, if we 
will not partake in other men's sins, and in the 
mischiefs that these may bring upon the church. 
It is a false pity, and a cruel compassion, if we 
suffer any considerations to prevail upon us in this 
matter, but those which the Gospel directs. The 
longer that we know them before we ordain them, 
the more that we sift them, and the greater variety 
of trials through which we make them pass, we 
do thereby both secure the quiet of our own con- 
sciences the more, as well as the dignity of holy 
things, and the true interest of religion and the 
church : for these two interests must never be sepa- 
rated : they are but one and the same in them- 
selves ; and " what God has joined together, we 
must never set asunder." 

We must be setting constantly before our clergy 
their obligations to the several parts of their duty ; 
we must lay these upon them, when we institute 
or collate them to churches, in the most solemn 
manner, and with the weightiest words we can 
find. We must then lay the importance of 
the care of souls before them ; and adjure them, 
as they will answer to God in the great day, in 
z2 



256 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

which we must appear to witness against them, 
that they will seriously consider and observe their 
ordination vows, and that they will apply them- 
selves wholly to that one thing. We must keep 
an eye upon them continually, and be applying 
reproofs, exhortations, and encouragements, as 
occasion offers : we must enter into all their 
concerns, and espouse every interest of that part 
of the church that is assigned to their care : 
we must see them as oft as we can, and en- 
courage them to come frequently to us ; and 
must live in all things with them, "as a father 
with his children." And that every thing we say to 
stir them up to their duty may have its due weight, 
we must take care so to order ourselves, that 
they may evidently see that we are careful to do 
our own, We must enter into all the parts of the 
worship of God with them ; not thinking ourselves 
too good for any piece of service that may be done ; 
visiting the sick, admitting poor and indigent per- 
sons, or such as are troubled in mind, to come to 
us ; preaching oft, catechising and confirming fre- 
quently ; and living in all things like men that 
study to " fulfil their ministry, and to do the work 
of evangelists. " 

There has been an opinion of late, much fa- 
voured by some great men in our church, that 
<f the bishop is the sole pastor of his whole dio- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 257 

cese ;" that the care of all the souls is singly in 
him, and that all the incumbents in churches are 
only his curates in the different parts of his parish, 
which was the ancient designation of his diocese. 
I know there are a great many passages brought 
from antiquity to favour this : I will not enter into 
the question, no, not so far as to give my own opi- 
nion of it. This is certain ; that such as are per- 
suaded of it, ought thereby to consider themselves 
as under very great and strict obligations to con- 
stant labour and diligence ; otherwise it will be 
thought, that they only favour this opinion because 
it increases their authority, without considering 
that necessary consequence that follows upon it. 

But I will go no further on this subject at this 
time ; having said so much only that I may not 
seem to fall under that heavy censure of our Sa- 
viour's with relation to the Scribes and Pharisees, 
" That they did bind heavy burdens, and grievous 
to be borne, upon others ; and laid them upon 
men's shoulders, when they themselves would not 
move them with one of their fingers. " I must 
leave the whole matter with my readers. I have 
now laid together, with great simplicity, what has 
been the chief subject of my thoughts for above 
thirty years. I was formed to them by a bishop, 
that had the greatest elevation of soul, the largest 
compass of knowledge, the most mortified and most 
z 3 



258 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

heavenly disposition, that I ever yet saw in mor- 
tal ; that had the greatest parts as well as virtues, 
with the most perfect humility that I ever saw in 
man ; and had a sublime strain in preaching, with 
so grave a gesture, and such a majesty both of 
thought, of language, and of pronunciation, that I 
never once saw a wandering eye where he preached, 
and have seen whole assemblies often melt in tears 
before him ; and of whom I can say, with great 
truth, that in a free and frequent conversation 
with him, for above two-and-twenty years, I never 
knew him say an idle word, that had not a direct 
tendency to edification ; and I never once saw him 
in any other temper, but that which I wished to 
be in, in the last minutes of my life. For that 
pattern which I saw in him, and for that conversa- 
tion which I had with him, I know how much I 
have to answer to God ; and though my reflecting 
on that which I knew in him, gives me just cause 
of being deeply humbled in myself, and before 
God, yet I feel no more sensible pleasure in any 
thing, than in going over in my thoughts all that I 
saw and observed in him. 

I have also another reason, that has determined 
me at this time to prepare this discourse, and to 
offer it to the public, — from the present posture of 
our affairs. We are now brought very near the 
greatest crisis that ever church or nation had ; and 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE, 259 

as, on the one hand, if God should so far punish 
us for our sins, for our contempt of his Gospel, 
and neglect of our duties, as to deliver us over to 
the rage of our enemies, we have nothing to look 
for, but a persecution more dreadful than any is in 
history ; so, if God hears our prayers, and gives us 
a happy issue out of all those dangers with which 
the malice of our enemies threatens us, we have 
in view the greatest prospect of a blessed and last- 
ing settlement, that even our wishes can propose 
to us. Now, nothing can so certainly avert the 
one, or prepare us to glorify God in it, if he, in 
his justice and wisdom, should call us to a fiery 
trial of our faith and patience, as the serious mind- 
ing of our functions, of our duties and obligations, 
the confessing of our sins, and the correcting of 
our errors. We shall be very unfit to suffer for 
our religion, much less to die for it, and very little 
able to endure the hardships of persecution, if our 
consciences are reproaching us all the while, that 
we have procured these things to ourselves ; and 
that, by the ill use of our prosperity and other ad- 
vantages, we have kindled a fire to consume us. 
But as we have good reason, from the present 
state of affairs, as well as from the many eminent 
deliverances and happy providences which have of 
late, in so signal a manner, watched over and pro- 
tected us, — to hope that God, according to the 



260 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

riches of his mercy, and for the glory of his great 
name, will hear the prayers that many good sonls 
offer up, rather than the cry of those abominations 
that are still among us; so nothing can so cer- 
tainly hasten on the fixing of our tranquillity, and 
the completing our happiness, as our lying often 
between the porch and the altar, and interceding 
with God for our people, and our giving ourselves 
wholly to the ministry of the word of God and to 
prayer. These being, then, the surest means, both 
to procure and to establish to us all those great 
and glorious things that we pray and hope for, 
this seemed to me a very proper time to publish a 
discourse of this nature. 

But that which made it an act of obedience, as 
well as zeal, was the authority of my most reve- 
rend metropolitan ; who, I have reason to believe, 
employs his time and thoughts chiefly to consider 
what may yet be wanting to give our church a 
greater beauty and perfection, and what are the 
most proper means both of purifying and uniting 
us : to which I thought nothing could so well pre- 
pare the way, as the offering to the public a plain 
and full discourse of the Pastoral Care, and of 
every thing relating to it. His Grace approved 
of this, and desired me to set about it. Upon 
these motives I wrote it, with all the simplicity 
and freedom that I thought the subject required, 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 261 

and sent it to him ; by whose particular approba- 
tion I published it, as I wrote it at his direction. 

There is, indeed, one of my motives that I have 
not yet mentioned, and on which I cannot enlarge 
so fully as I well might. But while we have such 
an invaluable and unexampled blessing in the per- 
sons of those princes whom God hath set over us, 
— if all the considerations which arise out of the 
deliverances that God has given us by their means, 
of the protection we enjoy under them, and of the 
great hopes we have of them, — if, I say, all this 
does not oblige us to set about the reforming of 
every thing that may be amiss, or defective among 
us, to study much, and to labour hard, — to lead 
strict and exemplary lives, and so to stop the 
mouths and overcome the prejudices of all that 
divide from us ; — this will make us look like a 
nation cast off and "forsaken of God," which is 
"nigh unto cursing/' and "whose end is burn- 
ing." We have reason to conclude, that our pre- 
sent blessings are the last essays of God's good- 
ness to us ; and that if we bring forth no fruit 
under these, the next sentence shall be, " Cut it 
down, why cumbereth it the ground ?'• These 
things lie heavy on my thoughts continually, and 
have all concurred to draw the treatise from me, 
which I have written with all the sincerity of 
heart and purity of intention that I should have 






262 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

had, if I had known that I had been to die at the 
conclusion of it, and to answer for it to God. 

To Him I humbly offer it up, together with my 
most earnest prayers, that the design here so im- 
perfectly offered at may become truly effectual, 
and have its full progress and accomplishment, 
which whensoever I shall see, I shall with joy 
say, " Nunc dimittis," &c. 



CHAP. X. 

OF PRESENTATIONS TO BENEFICES AND SIMONY. 

I do not intend to treat of this matter as it is 
a part of our law ; but, leaving that to the gentle- 
men of another robe, I shall content myself with 
offering an historical account of the progress of 
it, with the sense that the ancient church had of 
it, together with such reflections as will arise out 
of that. 

At first, the whole body of the clergy, in every 
city, parish, or diocese, was as a family under the 
conduct and authority of the bishop, who assigned 
to every one of his presbyters their peculiar dis- 
trict, and gave him a proper maintenance out of 
the stock of the oblations of the faithful. None 
were ordained but by the approbation, or rather 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 263 

the nomination of the people, the bishop being to 
examine into the worth and qualifications of the 
persons so nominated. In the first ages, which 
were times of persecution, it is not to be supposed 
that ambition or corruption could have any great 
influence, while a man in holy orders was, as it 
were, put in the front, and exposed to the first 
fury of the persecutors. So that what Tertullian* 
says on this head will be easily believed, "That 
those who presided over them were first tried; 
having obtained that honour, not by paying a price 
for it, but by the testimony that was given of 
them ; for the things of God were not purchased 
by money :" he alluding, probably, to the methods 
used by the heathens to arrive at their pontifical 
dignities. 

But as soon as wealth and dignity was, by the 
bounty of Christian emperors, made an appendix 
to the sacred function, then we find great com- 
plaints made of disorders in elections, and of par- 
tiality in ordinations, on which we see severe re- 
flections made by the best men both in the Eastern 
and Western churches. They not only condemned 
the purchasing elections and holy orders with 
money, but all the train of solicitations and inter- 

* Apology. 



264 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

cessions, with all flattery and obsequious court- 
ship, in order to those things. 

They, indeed, laid the name of simony chiefly 
on the purchasing of orders by money, which was 
attempted by Simon of Samaria, commonly called 
Simon Magus ; but they brought other precedents 
to shew how far they carried this matter. Ba- 
laam's hire of divination, Gehazi's going after 
Naaman for a present, and Jeroboam's making 
priests of those " who filled his hands*," are pre- 
cedents much insisted on by them, to carry the 
matter beyond the case of a bargain beforehand ; 
every thing in the way of practice to arrive at 
holy orders was all equally condemned. When 
things were reduced into methodical divisions, 
they reckoned a three-fold simony: that of the 
hand, when money was given ; that of the mouth, 
by flatteries ; and that of service, when men, by 
domestic attendance and other employments, did, 
by a temporal drudgery, obtain the spiritual dig- 
nity. 

Chrysostomf expresses this thus; " If you do 
not give money, but instead of money, if you flat- 
ter ; if you set others at work, and use other 
artifices, you are as guilty." Of all these he adds, 

* 2 Chron. xiii. 3. f Horn, in Acta Ap. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 265 

that as St. Peter said to Simon, " Thy money- 
perish with thee, so may thy ambition perish with 
thee." St. Jerome* says : " We see many reckon 
orders as a benefice, and do not seek for persons 
who may be as pillars erected in the house of 
God, and may be most useful in the service of the 
church ; but they do prefer those for whom they 
have a particular affection, or whose obsequious- 
ness has gained their favour, or for whom some of 
the great men have interceded ; not to mention the 
worst of all, those who, by the presents they make 
them, purchase that dignity." 

A corruption began to creep into the church in 
the fifth century, of ordaining vagrant clerks, with- 
out any peculiar title, of whom we find St. Jerome 
often complaining. This was condemned by the 
Council of Chalcedonf, in a most solemn manner. 
"The orders of all who were ordained presbyters, 
deacons, or in the inferior degrees, without a spe- 
cial title, either in the city, in some village, some 
chapel, or monastery, are declared null and void ; 
and, to the reproach of those who so ordained 
them, they are declared incapable of performing 
any function.' , But how sacred soever the autho- 
rity of this council was, it did not cure this great 
evil, from which many more have sprung. 

* In Isai. f Can. 6. 



266 



OF THE PASTORAL CAKE. 



A practice rose, not long after this, which 
opened a new scene. Men began to build churches 
on their own grounds, at their own charges, and 
to endow T these ; and they were naturally the 
masters, and in the true signification of the Roman 
word, the patrons of them. All the churches in 
the first Matricula were to be served by persons 
named to them by the bishop, and were to be 
maintained by him, out of the revenue of the 
church ; but these were put upon another foot, 
and belonged to the proprietors of the ground, to 
the builders, and the endowers*. They were also 
to offer to the bishop a clerk to serve in them. 
It seems they began to think, that the bishop was 
bound to ordain all such as were named by them : 
but Justinianf settled this matter by a law ; for 
he provided that the " patriarch should not be 
obliged to ordain such as were nominated by the 
patron, unless he judged them fit for it :" the 
reason given is, that "the holy things of God 
might not be profaned J." It seems he had this in 
his eye, when by another law he condemns those, 
who received any thing for such a nomination; 
for so I understand the Patrocinium Ordinationis, 

The elections to most sees lay in many hands ; 



* Fundus, Edificatio, et Dos. 
X Ibid. 6, c. 1. 



f Nov. 57, c. 2. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 267 

and, to keep out not only corruption, but par- 
tiality, from having a share in them, he by a 
special law required*, "That all persons, seculars 
ecclesiastics, who had a vote in elections, should 
join an oath to their suffrage, that they were nei- 
ther moved to it by any gift, promise, friendship, 
or favour, or by any other affection ; but that they 
give their vote upon their knowledge of the merits 
of the person :" it will easily be imagined, that no 
rule of this kind could be much regarded in cor- 
rupt ages. 

Gregory the Greatf is very copious in lament- 
ing these disorders ; and puts always the three- 
fold division of simony together, " manus, oris, et 
ministerii." Hincmar cites the prophet's wordsj, 
" He that shaketh his hands from holding of 
bribes;" in the Vulgar it is, "from every bribe," 
applying it to three sorts of simony. And in that 
Letter to Louis III., king of France, he protests, 
" He knew no kinsman nor friend ; and he only 
considered the life, learning, and other good qua- 
lities necessary to the sacred ministry." Those 
ages were very corrupt ; so that the great advan- 
tages that the popes had, in the disputes concern- 
ing the investitures into benefices, were taken 

* Nov. 137, c. 2. f Tom. ii. 195. 

% Isa. xxxiii. 15. 

A A2 



268 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

from this, That servile obsequiousness and flatteries 
were the methods used in procuring them ; of 
which it were easy to bring a great and copious 
proof, but that it is needless. 

I shall only name two provisions made against 
all these sinistrous practices. One was among us, 
in a council at Exeter*, in which this charge is 
given: "Let all men look into their own con- 
sciences, and examine themselves, with what de- 
sign they aspire to orders : if it is that they may 
serve God more virtuously and more acceptably ; 
or if it is for the temporals, and that they may 
extort benefices from those who ordain them ; for 
we look on such as simoniacs." In the Council 
of Basilf, in which they attempted the restoring 
the freedom of elections, as a mean to raise the 
reputation of the sacred function, they appointed 
that an oath should be taken by all electors, 
"That they should not give their voice for any 
who had, as they were credibly informed, endea- 
voured to procure it to themselves, either by pro- 
mising or giving any temporal thing for it, or by 
any prayer or petition, either by themselves, or 
by the interposition of any other ; or by any way 
whatsoever, directly or indirectly. " This w r ould 
go as far, as those who took it considered them- 

* Synod. Exon. 1287, c. 8. f Sess. 12. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 269 

selves bound by an oath, to secure elections from 
corruption or practice. 

I will go no farther to prove, that both fathers 
and councils, in their provisions against simony, 
considered the practices of application, importu- 
nity, solicitations, and flatteries, as of the same 
nature with simony : and therefore, though our 
law considers only simony as it is a bargain, in 
which money or the equivalent is given or pro- 
mised, yet the sense of the church went much 
further on this head, even in the most corrupt 
ages. The canon law does very often mention 
simony in its three-fold distinction, " manus, lin- 
gua), et obsequii ;" it being still reckoned a duty, 
both in the giver and receiver, that the gift should 
be free and voluntary. 

In the church of Rome, a right of patronage is, 
according to their superstition, a matter of great 
value ; for in every mass the patron is to be re- 
membered by a special collect, so that it saves 
them a great charge in the daily mass said for 
them. To us this effect ceases ; but still it is a 
noble piece of property, since a patron has a no- 
mination of him that has a care of souls committed 
to him : but as it is in itself highly valuable, so a 
great account is to be given for it, to Him who 
made and purchased those souls, and in whose 
sight they are of inestimable value, and who will 
a a 3 



270 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

reckon severely with such patrons as do not ma- 
nage it with due care. 

It is all one, what the consideration is on which 
it is bestowed, if regard is not in the first place 
had to the worth of the person so nominated, and 
if he is not judged fit and proper to undertake the 
cure of souls ; for with relation to the account 
that is to be given to the great Bishop of souls, it 
is all one, w r hether money, friendship, kindred, or 
any carnal regard, was the chief motive to the 
nomination. 

I know it may be said, no man but one in holy 
orders is capable of being possessed of a benefice ; 
and in order to that, he is to be examined by the 
bishop, though already ordained, before he can be 
possessed of it : but the sin is not the less, because 
others come in to be partakers of it. Still a patron 
must answer to God for his share, if he has nomi- 
nated a person without due care, and without con- 
sidering whether he thinks him a proper person 
for undertaking so great a trust. 

I will not carry this matter so far as to say, that 
a patron is bound to choose the fittest and most 
deserving persons he can find out : that may put 
him under great scruples ; and, there being a 
great diversity in the nature of parishes, and in 
the several abilities necessary for the proper duties 
of the pastoral care, it may be too great a load to 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 271 

lay on a man's conscience an obligation to distin- 
guish who may be the fittest person. But this 
is very evident ; that a patron is bound to name 
no person to so important a care as the charge of 
souls, of whom he has not at least a probable rea- 
son to believe, that he has the due qualifications, 
and will discharge the trust committed to him. 
Some motives may be baser than others : but even 
the consideration of a child to be provided for, by 
a cure of souls, when the main requisites are 
wanting, is in the sight of God no better than 
simony : for in the nature of things it is all one, 
if one sells a benefice, that by the sale he may 
provide for a child, and if he bestows it on a child, 
only out of natural affection, without considering 
his son's fitness to manage so great a trust. Per- 
petual advowsons, which are kept in families as a 
provision for a child, who must be put in orders, 
whatever his aversion to it or unfitness for it may 
be, bring a prostitution on holy things. And pa- 
rents who present their undeserving children, have 
this aggravation of their guilt, that they are not so 
apt to be deceived in this case, as they may be 
when they present a stranger. Concerning these, 
they may be imposed on by the testimony of those 
whom they do not suspect ; but they must be sup- 
posed to be better informed as to their own chil- 
dren. 






272 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

It is also certain, that orders are not given by 
all bishops with that anxiety of caution that the 
importance of the matter requires. And if a per- 
son is in orders, perhaps qualified for a lower sta- 
tion, yet he may want many qualifications neces- 
sary for a greater cure : and the grounds on which 
a presentation can be denied are so narrow, that 
a bishop may be under great difficulties, who yet 
knows he cannot stand the suit to which he lies 
open, when he refuses to comply with the patron's 
nomination. 

The sum of all this is, that patrons ought to 
look on themselves as bound to have a sacred re- 
gard to this trust that is vested in them ; and to 
consider very carefully, what the nature of the be- 
nefice that they give is, and what are the qualifica- 
tions of the person they present to it ; otherwise, 
the souls that may be lost by a bad nomination, 
whatsoever may have been their motive to it, will 
be required at their hands. 

At first, the right of patronage was an appen- 
dant of the estate in which it was vested, and was 
not to be alienated but with it : and then there 
was still less danger of an ill nomination : for it 
may be supposed, that he who was most concerned 
in a parish, would be to a good degree concerned 
to have it well served. But a new practice has 
risen among us, and, for aught I have been able to 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 273 

learn, it is only among us, ana! is in no other na- 
tion or church whatsoever. How long it has been 
among us, I am not versed enough in our law- 
books to be able to tell. And that is, the separat- 
ing the advowson from the estate to which it was 
annexed ; and the selling it, or a turn in it, as an 
estate by itself. This is so far allowed by our law, 
that no part of such a traffick comes within the 
statute against simony, unless when the benefice 
is open. I shall say nothing more on this head, 
save only, that whosoever purchases a turn, or a 
perpetual advowson, with a design to make the 
benefice go to a child, or remain in a family, with- 
out considering the worth or qualifications of the 
person to be presented to it, put themselves and 
their posterity under great temptations. For here 
is an estate to be conveyed to a person, if he can 
get but through those slight examinations upon 
which orders are given, and has negative virtues, 
that is, he is free from scandalous sin, though he 
has no good qualities, nor any fixed intentions of 
living suitably to his profession, of following the 
studies proper to it, and of dedicating himself to 
the work of the ministry : on the contrary, he 
perhaps discovers a great deal of pride, passion, 
covetousness, and an ungoverned love of pleasure ; 
and is so far from any serious application of mind 



274 OF THE PASTOHAL CARE. 

to the sacred functions, that he has rooted in him 
an aversion to them. 

The ill effects of this are but too visible ; and we 
have great reason to apprehend, that persons who 
come into the service of the church with this dis- 
position of mind, will despise the care of souls, as 
a thing to be turned over to one of a mechanic 
genius, who can never rise above some low per- 
formances : they will be incessantly aspiring higher 
and higher ; and, by fawning attendances, and the 
meanest compliances with such as can contribute 
to their* advancement, they will think no services 
too much out of their road that can help to raise 
them. They will meddle in all intrigues, and will 
cry up and cry down things in the basest me- 
thods, as they hope to find their account in them* 
I wish, with all my heart, that these things were 
not too notorious; and that they did not lay 
stumbling-blocks in men's way, which may give 
advantages to the tribe of profane libertines, to 
harden them in their prejudices against not only 
the sacred functions, but all revealed religion in 
general. I shall end this head, leaving it on the 
consciences of all patrons, and obtesting them by 
all that is sacred, to reflect seriously on this great 
trust that the law has put in their hands, and to 
consider what account they are to give of it in the 
great day. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 275 

But if patrons ought to consider themselves un- 
der strict obligations in this matter, how much 
more ought they to lay the sense of the duties of 
their function to heart, who have, by solemn vows, 
dedicated themselves to the work of the ministry ! 
What notion have they of running without being 
sent, who tread in those steps ? Do not they say, 
according to what was threatened as a curse on 
the posterity of Eli*, " Put me, I pray thee, into 
one of the priest's offices, that I may eat a piece 
of bread }'' Do they not feel these words as a cha- 
racter of what they say within themselves, when 
they come up to the altar ? Can they not trust 
God, and go on, fitting themselves, in the best 
manner they can, for holy functions, waiting for 
such an interposition of providence as shall open 
a clear way to them to some station in the church ; 
not doubting, but that if God, by a motion of his 
Spirit, called them to holy orders, he will raise up 
instruments to bring that about ; and put it in the 
heart of some one or other, to give or to procure to 
them a post, without their own engaging in that 
sordid merchandise, or descending to any, though 
less scandalous methods, which bring with them 
such a prostitution of mind, that they who run 
into them, cannot hope to raise to themselves the 

* 1 Sam. ii. 36. 



276 OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 

esteem due to the sacred function, which is the 
foundation of all the good they can do by their la- 
bours. If things turn cross to them, in a post to 
which such endeavours may have brought them 
what comfort can they have within them ? Or 
what confidence can they have in God, when their 
own consciences will reproach them with this, 
that it is no wonder if what was so ill acquired 
should prosper no better. When they come to die, 
the horror of an oath falsely taken, which they 
palliated by an equivocating sense, will be a terri- 
ble companion to them in their last minutes; when 
they can no more carry off the matter by evasions 
or bold denials, but are to appear before that God, 
to whose eyes all things are naked and opened. 
Then all the scandal they have given, all the souls 
that they have lost or neglected, all the reproaches 
that they have brought on their function and on 
the church, for which, perhaps, they have pre- 
tended no ordinary measure of zeal ; all these, I 
say, will come upon them as an armed man, and 
surround them with the sense of guilt, and the 
terrors of that " consuming fire" that is ready to 
devour them. Men who have by unlawful me- 
thods and a prevaricating oath come into a bene- 
fice, cannot truly repent of it, but by departing 
from it ; for the unlawful oath will still lie heavy 
on them, till that is done. This is the indispen- 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 277 

sable restitution in this case ; and unless this is 
done, they live on and die in the sin unrepented 
of. u God is not mocked," though men are. I 
will leave this here, for I can carry it no higher. 

As for those who have not prevaricated in the 
oath, but yet have been guilty of practice and me- 
thods to arrive at benefices, I do not lay this of re- 
linquishing their benefices on them. But certainly, 
if they ever come to right notions of the matter, 
they will find just grounds to be deeply humbled 
before God for all their practices that way. If 
they do truly mourn for them, and abstain from 
the like for the future, and if they apply them- 
selves with so much the more zeal to the labours of 
their function, and redeem the meanness of their 
former practices by a stricter course of life, by 
their studies and their diligence, they may by that 
compensate for the too common arts by which 
they arrived at their posts. 

I know these things are so commonly practised, 
that as few are out of countenance who tread in 
such beaten paths, so I am afraid they are too little 
conversant in just notions to feel the evil of them. 
It is no wonder if their labours are not blest, who 
enter on them by such low and indirect methods ; 
whereas men who are led by an overruling pro- 
vidence into stations, without any motions or pro- 
curement of their own, as they have an unclouded 

B B 



278 OF THE PASTORAL CAttfi. 

call from God, so they have the foundation of a 
true firmness in their own minds. They can appeal 
to God, and so have a just claim to his protection 
and blessing. Every thing is easy to them, because 
they are always easy within. If their labours are 
blessed with success, they rejoice in God ; and are 
by that animated to continue in them, and to in- 
crease their diligence. If that is denied them, so 
that they are often forced to cry out, " My lean- 
ness, my leanness*," I have laboured in vain ; 
they are humbled under it ; they examine them- 
selves more carefully, if they can find any thing 
in their own conduct that may occasion it, which 
they will study to correct, and still they persist in 
their labour ; knowing that if they continue doing 
their duty, whatever other effects that may have* 
those faithful shepherds, when the chief Shepherd 
" shall appear, shall receive from him a crown of 
glory that fadeth not awayf." 

To all this I will only add somewhat relating to 
bonds of resignation. A bond to resign at the 
pleasure of the patron carries with it a base ser- 
vitude, and simony in its full extent ; and yet, be- 
cause no money is given, some who give those 
bonds do very ignorantly apprehend that they 
may, with a good conscience, swear the oath of 

* Isa. xxiv. 16. f 1 Pet. v. 4. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 279 

simony. There is but one way to cure the mis- 
chief of this great evil, which can have no effect, 
if bishops will resolve to accept of no resignation 
made upon such bonds ; since, by the common 
law, a clerk is so tied to his bishop and to his 
cure, that he cannot part with it without the bi- 
shop's leave. By this all these bonds may be made 
ineffectual. 

Other bonds are certainly more innocent, by 
which a clerk only* binds himself to do that which 
is otherwise his duty. And since the forms of our 
courts are dilatory and expensive, and there is 
not yet a full provision made against many abuses 
which a good patron would secure a parish from, 
I see no just exception to this practice, where the 
abuse is specially certified ; so that nothing is re- 
served in the patron's breast, by general words, 
of which he, or his heirs, who perhaps may not 
inherit his virtues as they do his fortunes, may 
make an ill use. It is certain, our constitution 
labours yet under some defects, which were pro- 
vided against by that noble design, brought so 
near perfection, in that work entitled " Reformatio 
Legum Ecclesiasticarum," which, it is to be 
hoped, will be at some time or other taken up 
again, and perfected. 

The affinity of the former matter leads me to 
give an account of somewhat relating to myself. 

BB 2 



280 OF THE PASTORAL CARE, 

When I was first put in the post which I still 
hold, I found there were many market towns in 
the diocese very poorly provided. So, since there 
are about fifty dignities and prebends belonging 
to the cathedral, I considered how, by the dis- 
posing of these, I might mend the condition of 
the incumbents in the market towns, and secure 
such a help to their successors. And, by the ad- 
vice of some very eminent divines and canonists, 
this method was resolved on,-~-That when I gave 
a prebend to any such incumbent, he should give 
a bond, that if he left that benefice, he should at 
the same time resign his prebend, that it might go 
to his successor. This went on for some years, 
with a universal approbation. 

But when a humour began to prevail of finding 
fault, this was cried out upon as a grievance bor- 
dering upon simony. I upon that drew up a vin- 
dication of my practice, from great authority, out 
of civilians and canonists. But, upon second 
thoughts, I resolved to follow that saying of Solo- 
mon's*, " Leave off contention before it be med- 
dled with or engaged in." So, to lay the clamour 
that some seemed resolved to raise, I resolved to 
drop my design, and so delivered back all the 
bonds that I had taken. 

* Prov. xix. 14. 



OF THE PASTORAL CARE. 281 

I will offer nothing either in the way of vindi- 
cation or resentment ; being satisfied to give a true 
relation of the matter, leaving it to the reader's 
judgment to approve or censure, as he sees cause. 
And thus I conclude this chapter, which I thought 
was wanting to complete my design in writing 
this treatise. 



THE END. 




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